A good start to the month of March

March started off well, with a couple of celebrations. Firstly we had a party lunch for my mom who celebrated another birthday (won't divulge her age though but it was one of the big ones) and all had a wonderful time. The second joyous occasion was the fact that my friend J, from school days, had her first child... a little boy K, born naturally on his due date! I think that bodes well for his future! He is a gorgeous baby and I wish the parents, and baby K, all the best for the years to come.

Unfortunately the joy at the start of the month didn't last that long... work went down hill a couple of days later when we found out our grant application failed... this did not bode well for me, as my search for alternative work had to be increased rapidly and my stress levels increased exponentially... weekends were spent filling in job applications, some for jobs I didn't really want. Work itself also became busier in an attempt to finish all that needed to be done by the time my contract ran out. This was beneficial to me in some ways though, as I was learning new techniques, but I also found some of those moments rather stressful too. What a little wreck I felt, but looking back I feel I have (hopefully) grown from the experience... my favourite saying during all this time was "what does not kill me makes me stronger" in the hope that by saying this I would remain calm(ish) and I wouldn't actually land up seriously hurting someone!

Thankfully I have such a great family and great friends who provided me with support through all my little trials and tribulations. Again, my friends A and R stepped in to assist in keeping me in some form of sanity by inviting me around for meals and letting me rant and rave to them over the phone. B was also a major support by being at the other end of the computer and just reading through my rants about things in general. And my poor parents had a lot to deal with too, hearing pretty much the same rantings at least three times a week. I will take this moment to say thanks to my family and friends for being there for me and I am sorry I was such a wreck!

The nice thing about March is that it ended on a good note, with me actually being able to take some holiday to spend time with my family, including my niece and nephew who were visiting from SA. We spent a week in Wales doing various things, news of which I will post separately to this entry...