Cooking and planning

It's half term at the mo. Hence I am sat in bed (having just realised the clocks have gone back so not feeling so guilty as I did!) at 1:30pm on a Sunday, deciding what to do and making plans.

First, I plan to work my way through the various cookbooks I own - what's the point in them being there if you don't utilise them? So I started last night with Hugarian Chicken with Red Peppers, very nice :)

Plans are a big thing at the moment. I've now been in the same place for over 2 years (ahhhhh!!!) which is starting to freak me out a little. However, God doesn't seem to be telling me that it's time to move on yet so I'm trying to be grown-up and make some plans for the future.

It is tricky to be grown-up when you work with teenagers and then come home to a flat of teenagers. In fact, Thursday (Oct 22nd) was the first time since......errr....the Easter Holidays (!?!) that I've spent more than 3 days without the lovely beings :) Still this issue is being addressed (I have assurances, despite setbacks!) so hopefully by, ooo I dunno, the summer, I may have somewhere to live without them.

The money situation is still interesting. I know this may not seem the case as I'm planning to go to Australia next summer (more on that later) but this will involve much sacrificing and scrimping, but I want something to aim towards so that is definitely big enough! I also found out that at another girl's school, not a million miles away from here, the same job pays a wage of £12,000 MORE than me, that's roughly a 40% pay difference...hmmm...... However, I don't think it includes accomodation - except I could actually afford to rent on that. Quite frustrating really.

So yeah, Australia. I have quite a few friends over there and I've not seen one of the in about 8 years so I figured it's about time I went over and explored the place. 4 weeks at the beginning of the summer holidays (back in time for Lee Abbey) should be enough to get a good taste and say hi to folks. I know of a few things I definitely want to do. Now I'm trying to work out the best way to travel between them all. Train seems to be the best way so far. Cheaper than flying and I get to see the landscape whilst passing through - fabulous! I'm makig an attempt to use OneNote to organise everything. The kids at school use it a lot so I though I'd give it a shot. Is proving very handy actually!

Qatar airways seems to be the way to fly (at least the cheapest) I would love to stop over in Fiji or somewhere, but as I'm not sure how that works timewise that may be saved for another occasion!

Well, off to do some more research!