After an interview process that lasted almost 3 weeks, Mark finally got the job!
This is a life changing opportunity that he has worked hard for. Not life changing in the financial sense, although the money is better and the targets more achievable meaning better potential for that bonus, but more importantly life changing in the family sense. Ok, the initial training will take him away from home and we don’t expect to see much of him this side of December 23rd when we will head to Pembrokeshire for Christmas but following that his work will be 9 – 5, Monday to Friday.
Mark “every Saturday and Sunday off….what will we do with ourselves?”
Me “all of the things that we haven’t done over the last six years”
Mark “this is going to involve a tent, being in the middle of nowhere, taking photographs, indulging in nature and walking coastal paths isn’t it?”
Me “Absolutely”
We are all really looking forward to this time that we haven’t really had before. Mark currently has a Tuesday off which is of very little use when your kids are in school. Jamie and Carys have plenty of ideas to keep us going until the ‘camping weather’ kicks in. Jamie would like to get out and do more geocaching and visit even more castles, that’s do-able. Carys would like to go and look for pink ducks “and I don’t mean the Flamingos” says Carys Carys
However, with more time at home Mark can attempt to tame the animals that he insisted we have. I don’t dislike animals but I find the hamster boring, the rabbit miserable and the cat makes me sneeze. Mark occasionally gets the hamster out and puts him in his ball, I spend the next half hour dislodging him from underneath the radiator. I don’t suppose I have given the rabbit a chance. We have only had him for a couple of weeks. He is fully grown. The local garden centre gave him away because they couldn’t sell him. I have tried to tell Mark that if something is free there is normally a catch. The catch this time…a psychotic rabbit!! We probably wouldn’t have replaced ‘Mr Bobby Bobby Rabbit’ had we not been left with 150 quids worth of hutch purchased only 10 days before Bobby rather inconsiderately passed away! Jamie loves the cat and the cat loves Jamie. He has an order of preference:
1. Jamie, because he plays with him constantly
2. Mark, because he feeds him more often than anyone else
3. Me, because I ignore him, he ignores me, I’m happy with that
4. Carys , he hates Carys
You will notice that I haven’t mentioned their names. I’m ashamed of their names. I find it hard to explain why I so strongly dislike pets having ‘peoples’ names. We have David the boring hamster, Boris the psychotic rabbit and Big Frank, the cat that makes me sneeze.
Finally, we have Tank. We all adore Tank.
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| Tank |
He is a Leopard Tortoise. His is about 2 years old and small enough to sit in the palm of my hand. By the time he is 15 years old he will weigh approximately 45lb and be about 50cm in length
He will then, of course, have grown into his name. All of us, but particularly myself, spend hours watching Tank. He is interesting and intriguing in a prehistoric way and he lives the life of luxury….uv rays, a basking lamp, a shallow pool should he fancy a dip and a selection of freshly chopped vegetables twice a day. Because he is an African tortoise, not Mediterranean , he won’t hibernate. I was insistent that we had an African species because I wasn’t paying 100’s of pounds for a pet that would spend half of its life sleeping in the shed.
So Mark, knuckle down and get those bonuses. Not only because we plan to use the weekends for what they were designed for and get out there and see things, do things and try things, all of which cost money in a round about kind of way but more so because in about 13 years time Tank will need a detached 4 bedroom dwelling all of his own!
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| Tank |
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