Life ticks along here.

I am looking for a new job, something full time, pays well and is challenging. I have spent a long time doing bits and pieces here and there and now I want to bring my varied skills together and consolidate them. I am no longer a student so it is time to look for a full time job where I can progress and be promoted. I have loved working at the bookshop and it will break my heart to leave but it is time to move on.

T has gone back to uni! She is doing university by correspondence, very boring degree that is good for her career (okay, she might not find it boring). T is very good at what she does and has worked in the transport industry for a long time. This degree will allow her to continue moving up, which is fantastic because she is bloody wasted where she is. Unfortunately the company has no foresight and is not supporting her at all in her university endeavors. Fortunately she is so good at her job that she manages to get her work done and study at work as well. I guess the company is supporting her study, they just don't know they are!

We currently have two dogs, two cats and two rats. Ruby is still around and doing really well. Busta is a new addition, we think he is a mastiff X kelpie. Busta loves other dogs and is a big smoocher and really quite lazy. Busta loves going to the dog park and having a good play with the other dogs but after that he is very content to lie around and either sleep or chew a bone. Ruby and Busta are polar opposites! Both are great with children and people, very well behaved and know a range of commands. T takes them out for a walk in the morning and I take them out in the evenings. We power walk for 30 mins to the park, dawdle through the park for 30 mins and then power walk home for 30 mins. The exercise is good for me and for them.

The cats are cats and I have had rats before. I fell in love with rats as soon as I bought my first one home. They are very inquisitive, very smart and very social. They are complete mischief makers and adapt very quickly. Rats are naturally fearful of cats but mine have adapted to living with them so now if a cat sits beside their cage they come out and investigate. The cats mainly ignore them and the cats certainly don't hunt them. We take them out every day and play with them, last week we took them to the markets with us and had to stop every five minutes to let children pat them. For their part the rats said hello to everyone and continuously made their funny little "happy" noise. They make a grunting type of noise when they are happy. They are grey and white and their names are Gertrude and Beatrice.

T and I are both playing cricket. I am so happy to being playing sport again, I have missed it the last few years. I do bookgroup each month. T continues to do cooking courses. T has also started building a workbench with my brother and her new power tools. T and our new/old housemate P do some leather working as well.

Basically I have a very full and a very happy life.