Too odd for odd jobs!

Rather ironically, it turns out I'm too 'unorthodox' to work in B&Q, according to the psychometric tests that constitutes their application. Funny, I'd have thought being creative would be an advantage working in a DIY store! I guess Homebase just aren't as picky.
The job hunt is still continuing, and I've applied for many jobs of all sorts of descriptions. It is starting to get depressing spending hours on an application and then not even hear back either way. I think I can reel off my employment history for the last 10 years, including dates, times and reasons for leaving and salary, by heart now!

Bad tempered chocolate!

As it was my birthday recently, I received a heap of cool stuff to get me started with making chocolate craft. Yesterday was my first attempt at tempering chocolate. Tempering is a process used to invoke desirable qualities in chocolate such as shiney exterior, smooth texture and general niceness! You start by heating small pieces of chocolate until it reaches its melting point of 44C then take it off the heat (using a bain marie makes life easier than guessing with a microwave) and stir in some more small pieces of choclate till that melts. The aim is to achieve a temperature of 32C so the chocolate becomes 'stable' enough to work with. Once I'd done this, I rather messily ladled quantities of chocolate into some moulds, tapped them on the side to dispell any air bubbles and put them in the fridge for half an hour. As a first attempt, I was quite chuffed as they had a passable shine to them. Although I still need lots of practise as the chocolate melted quite quickly in the hands which is a sign that it wasn't tempered correctly. I'm sure my family will not mind me practising some more!

Thanks to my family for helping with starting me in becoming a just-for-the-fun-of-it chocolatier!

Gimme a job!

I had an assessment today for a temporary data entry job over the christmas period. I think I should get through as I was 3.5 times faster than the requirement and had an accuracy of 98% (baseline pass was 80%). Bit of a relief because if nothing else crops up between now and then it's still some form of income.
I'm currently filling out several applications for a range of jobs - everything from librarian to zoo keeper! I'm not terribly fussed over what I actually do for this year, as long as I get some form of experience of further qualification/training. At the moment, just getting a job is the focus!

Interesting Times

In keeping with how Gareth and I usually work our lives, our plans have taken another U turn. We are now trying to find a house to rent and share with a friend who has just moved back from the US (the same friend who we got Glyn from), and his fiance when she moves over here in a few months time. It's quite exciting as we had thought we would be living between our parents' houses for quite some time yet, and despite getting on well with our parents, this isn't an ideal setup for a newly married couple! Living with our friends is a happy compromise.

It's certainly upped the ante on job seeking, and it does mean we will be staying in the South West for about a year, but it will give Gareth the opportunity to gain some work experience in a finance job before applying for the highly competitive trainee accountant positions across the country.

Castle Drogo

Castle Drogo

Image from http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-castledrogo

Yesterday my mother-in-law and her partner took us to a National Trust property near Exeter. The property was called Castle Drogo and is the last castle built in England. It surprisingly large inside considering the outside looked quite compact. Unfortunately I forgot to take photos despite taking the camera with us. There was an additional tour (at cost) that took you on a quick (and don't underestimate the word!) visit around the roof. To be honest, the tour was not really worth doing unless you are particulary desparate to take in the views which, to be fair, were quite amazing - an endless panoramic of Dartmoor.
After a picnic outside the castle, we walked around the gardens and shop. Then decided to walk along one of the public paths. My mother-in-law, feeling unwell from a cold, chose the shortest walk (0.8miles) so we set off. The signs were not the most comprehensive and we ended up following the signs for what turned out to be the longest walk (3.5miles)! Fortunately there was a quiet country pub in the middle of the walk set in the foot of a valley. The walk back was somewhat teasting as everytime you walked an ascent, a descent quickly succeeded and you ended up on the same level. Considering Castle Drogo's car park was at the top of the valley, this convoluting route was proving irksome!

We had a great day, although I did feel for my mother-in-law walking the route back as she was feeling quite rough by the end. We all had early nights last night!

wedding photo's

In no particular order, here are some wedding photo's (I have heaps more, but figured I wouldn't bore people too much with them all!):

Gareth and me

My sister Paula with my

nephew Tom

My niece Lily putting stickers

on our wedding certificate

envelope!

Mum, me and Paula

Cutting the super chocolate

wedding cake!

Signing the register - now officially a 'Mrs'!

Gareth and the best man, Thom.