Busy as a Bee

I've decided that I really want to start working again. I'm looking forward to doing something (anything) outside of the house. I've been submitting my CV to some places that I think I might enjoy working at and have had a little feedback so far, although not as much as I'd like. I have an interview with the Royal Bank of Scotland on the 29th, although I must say I'm not thoroughly excited about that one. I thought I would really enjoy working at a bank at first, especially considering my love of all things having to do with personal finance, but I have changed my mind about that after all the hoopla that has come with securing an interview. I've already had my phone interview (which included a competency quiz where they put me on the spot and had me do "maths" in my head) which I did well in. Now is the face-to-face interview, where I have to provide proof of EVERYTHING I've been doing over the past 3 years. I mean everything. They want pay stubs from the first and last three months of each of my jobs from the last three years (who has that?!), a bill from each residence I've lived in (do they know how many times I've moved?) and proof of what I've been doing, even when I haven't been working. This last bit has really thrown me. I told them that I haven't been working since October of 2007. They then asked what I had been doing- I replied "being a housewife while I waited on my Dependant's visa". They thought that was ok, and said I could prove that by bringing in my unemployment claims. That's where the problem lies... I'm not claiming unemployment (isn't that a good thing?!). The lady sounded shocked when I told her that and replied with "how have you been supporting yourself then?" in which I replied... "my husband pays the bills and supports me financially". This didn't satisfy her and she said that I would still have to prove what I've been doing. How exactly am I supposed to prove that I've been a housewife? Does she want my journal excerpts? I have no idea what I'm going to do there... and she said if I didn't have every document they required (including the "proof"), they wouldn't be able to continue with the interview process. What a pain. SOOO.... I'm looking elsewhere. The problem with that is that finding a job as an administrative assistant is proving to be less than easy. Apparently I have "too much experience", whatever that means for any receptionist job because I understand how to use Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. I've been looking at jobs as an administrative assistant or personal assistant lately, we'll see how that goes.

I'm not giving up on teaching, just taking a hiatus from it while I'm here since I'm not certified here. I would go back to school for that here so that I could teach, but because we aren't residents here we don't qualify for the free education that the Scottish Universities provide their residents. This means that I would have to pay international rates (think roughly 16,000 pounds for the year which is 32,000 US dollars). No thanks... we probably aren't going to live here forever so I don't think I'm ready to dish out that kind of money when I've already paid more than that for my degree at home.

Nic is in Canada and is doing great on his trip... he'll be heading to the Deepwater Intervention Forum's Annual Conference tomorrow. He'll be there until Friday morning when he'll return to Montreal and then fly home to me on Sunday (well, he leaves late Saturday and gets here Sunday morning). Everything is going smoothly so far, except his taxi drivers haven't exactly been the best lately. When he arrived the first taxi took him to the wrong airport and this morning he had to call two before one showed up to take him to where he needed to go. I think he's regretting not renting a car there, but everything should be good. He has to leave the hotel bright and early tomorrow morning to make his 6:00 flight, so I hope they are on time tomorrow.

I've been reading quite a bit (when I'm not at the grocery store or looking for a job), which has been nice. I am currently reading "My Life With George", which is a book about a woman who's husband has died so she got a dog to make her life (and her young son's) less lonely. George is their dog (a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel) and is quite a feisty little animal. It's been pretty entertaining, though I'm looking forward to the other books I have planned for this week.