Road Block!

I've been a bit absent from Blip again, but it's been a strange week!  

On Sunday night I applied for a job as a part time temporary receptionist at a private aesthetics clinic here in Colwyn Bay.  At 9.15am on Monday, I got a phone call from the woman to say that she'd received my CV and wanted to know if I could work Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday this week.  She sounded desperate, so I said I could do Tuesday & Thursday - I had reservations about how desperate she sounded and how quick she'd phoned me, but I decided I had nothing to lose.  However, on Tuesday when I got there, she was a complete nightmare - she appeared very stressed, everything was a little chaotic and she spent most of the time complaining about the girl that was currently off sick with long covid.  She said that they have an office elsewhere, but she has no-one to run it so everything is a mess and she has a big backlog.  Anyway, to cut a long story short, I worked the day but decided it wasn't for me, so we had a chat at the end of the day.   Interestingly, I since found out that my friend Sam also went to work for her a year ago and only lasted 3 days, she said she's always advertising for staff, so my instinct was right!

On Wednesday I had to go to mum's bungalow to meet a couple of workmen there to quote for work to get the bungalow in a state ready to rent so that we can part fund her care costs.  The first guy that came measured up and made notes of everything that we want doing, and said he'd get a price to me in a few days.  About 30 minutes later, he came back and said he's spoken to his partner and they would be interested in renting it.  Properties in mum's village are hard to come by and rent out very quickly and he said that people are on a waiting list and they're struggling to find anywhere.  They're expecting a baby and his parents just live round the corner, so it's perfect for them.  The estate agent had given me a minimum and a maximum rental figure that we could expect to achieve, and Leigh made a very interesting proposition, in that if we agreed to rent it to them for the minimum figure, they would take it as it is and he would do the work to it at his own cost while they're living there.  This would be ideal for us as we wouldn't have to lose time having the work done, and obviously wouldn't have to spend the money.  The bungalow is fine, it just needs decorating throughout and new internal doors etc., to make it more attractive to someone, and to be honest even with the work done we would have been happy with the minimum rent suggested, so it seems a good opportunity for both of us. He's arranged to meet me there next week, so his partner can see it, and we'll take it from there.  Obviously, we would need reference checks and a lease drawing up, if they decided to go ahead, but if they do, we're going to have to clear the bungalow pretty quick!

Anyway, back to today and I met the Nordic walking group for our weekly walk around the nature reserve.  They're a lovely group of people and I really enjoy it, and after a nice walk we sat and had a drink at the cafe, and then I went back round the reserve with my camera in search of the wild ponies.  Luckily for me, I found them on the path near the estuary, so they made a good photo with Conwy Castle in the background.

This afternoon, I went to help Yvonne clean one of the lodges at the Aberconwy Spa and Resort that she looks after - she pays me well and has said that I can help her on an ad hoc basis as and when it suits me, so I think I'll stick with this for the time being as well as my Zoo volunteering, I think I've got too much stuff going on with sorting mum out, to look for a 'proper' job.