back to life

I saw today in the newspaper that Gregg Wallace had split up from his girlfriend, the paper called it the “Masterchef curse” as his mate John had had a similar experience recently.

Like the many of the nations population I was glued to Masterchef and was so happy to see Shelina win. I was routing for her all the way through. I only watched it to see how the contestants worked their way through all the challenges and get to know their personalities.

I really got annoyed though with all the phaffing around and the puny pretentious food! 

During the last week  the final three had to work in a Michelin star restaurant and then cook for some of the top chefs that mentored them in those restaurants and through the series.

At the restaurants there were 90 euro starters, barbed wire jelly and celeriac tear drops……please!!!

Maybe I’m missing something, perhaps because maybe I’ve never had the money to spend on fine dining I don’t give a toss whether my langoustine are all facing the same way in concentric circles!!!!!!

Today being Mothers day may I take this opportunity to say happy mothers day to all mums and grandmothers.

I don’t know where I’d be without my mum, especially over the last 6 years during my illness. But through her love, patience and support I’ve got over the worse and well on my way to a full recovery.

When growing up the most her valuable advice to me was to be independent. She encouraged me to work hard at school, college and Nursing school/university and to get to where I wanted to be in my profession. She helped me so much when I had my sons and needed to work, even though she worked hard herself.

My greatest achievement is giving birth to and raising my 2 wonderful sons. I know all mothers say this but they truly are great lads. Although they struggled through primary and secondary school, they are now doing extremely well as strapping 20 and 23 year olds. My oldest son, Scott, is at Winchester University studying Archaeology and my youngest, Jake, is a budding actor studying performance arts. I could not be any prouder of them and they were so supportive and patient with me through my illness and when I got married for the second time.

Being a mother is perhaps the most difficult, demanding and frustrating job, but at the same time it’s the most rewarding job in the world. I believe it is a privilege to be a mother and I feel privileged every day.

My interview went very well, couldn’t have gone better really. That really boosted my confidence especially as I will need to have another interview to apply to do the Return to Nurse Practice course and any other jobs I apply for.

Of course now I’ve entered the realm of mandatory training, first day was yesterday and manual handling next Thursday. This I don’t mind because I used to teach manual handling and I loved it.

This success has not stopped me searching and applying for more jobs, I’m beginning to lose track of what I’ve applied for and  I’ve downloaded my CV on quite a few job sites now.

This afternoon I sent my CV to an agency, within 10 minutes a representative phoned me back. After talking for a while she said she was sorry they couldn’t offer me work because I couldn’t commit to 21 hours a week. I don’t want to commit to too many hours at first because I haven’t worked for a long time and still don’t know what I am capable of and how tired I will get. I was pretty knackered last night after the training day.

Then 1 hour after that the same woman phoned me back and informed that she had spoken to her manager about me  and they are willing to let me work less hours. So after a quick phone interview I was in and invited for a face to face interview.

So the moral of the story is never say never and apply anyway, what have I got to lose!

I uploaded my CV on a few more websites, in for a penny in for a pound as they say! I have applied for 4 jobs, 2 healthcare assistant and 2 learning support assistant.

By late afternoon I was called by a nursing agency inviting me for an interview for a healthcare assistant role.

My first thought was “what am I going to wear!”

With my CV updated and revamped it’s now time to put it out there for all to see. An internet search informs me that there are a huge amount of job sites inviting me to upload my CV and get myself a job. I decided on 3 for now, the registration and upload of CV was so easy and straight forward. Now all I have to do is wait for job vacancies to be emailed to me and prospective employers to contact when they realize they can’t do without me!

12 hours later I get a call from a recruiter wanting more information about the roles I’m looking for and my current status

10 hours after that another recruiter asking the same thing.

Proof I think that these job sites are well worth signing up for.

It’s not easy updating a CV when you haven’t done any work for the last 6 years. But it did give me the opportunity to remember that before my illness I was somebody, I was worthwhile and achieved a hell of a lot.

In the deepest despair of being ill with CFS I felt like my life was over, I had nothing to live for because I simply didn’t have the energy and didn’t feel well enough to live. Reading and editing my CV helped me to evaluate my skills and experience and boost my confidence and resolve.

Given that I have to wait until June before I can do the return to nurse practice course and that the course is 4 months long, I have been giving some thought to what other jobs I can do with the skills I have.

My next job of choice is a learning support assistant in a school. Although I don’t have any experience of being paid to do that role, I have had lots of experience supporting my sons throughout their primary and secondary education in and out of school. I also have many years experience nursing children.

Unfortunately, as with many jobs, formal experience is needed for a lot of the jobs advertised. Still that won’t put me off applying, many of my skills gained throughout my nursing career are transferable and I’m pretty sure I can do the job