This dog learned a new trick!

So most of you who know me, know that I’m not the most coordinated of individuals. I walk into tables, trip over my own feet, slice/burn/peel myself when in the kitchen and I’ve even been known to choke on my own spit (yes, I know, gross).

One of the things I have never been known to do, is ride a bike. My balance is iffy, and I’m terrified of falling. So when I discovered my new office is not actually in the area I thought it was going to be, and that there are not yet buses that go to the area it actually is in, I needed to rethink how I was getting to work.

Currently I’m renting a car, since the current office is almost 30 km away from home with no direct bus route. The new office is only 3 km away.

I could walk, but its incredibly hot in summer and when we tested out the route, while it is doable I arrived at the office building a panting, sweaty mess, not a very professional look.

So we started thinking of alternatives. I could try get lifts to and from work (there must be people from the city going but then I would be stuck on their schedule), take taxis (expensive), teach myself to ride a bike (hahahahaha) or I could buy an electric scooter, or korkinet as they are called in Israel.

Of all the options the scooter sounded like the best idea, yes it requires balance, but for some reason learning to balance on a scooter seemed easier than the bike.

So I started researching, doing brand comparisons and price comparisons and found a Xiaomi M365 on sale from one of the big Israeli supermarkets.

After some back and forth and discussions with Paul, we bought it.

3 days later it was delivered to our door and we went to the local bike shop and bought a helmet and some knee and elbow pads.

My first try in our driveway was, well, interesting. You need to kick off and get the scooter to 5 km/hr in order for the accelerator to engage. Now that’s not very fast, but remember, you need to be upright and balanced, so when the accelerator kicks in and you start going faster, you don’t fall down. Yeah, it took me a few tries before I got that part right.

A few days later we took the scooter to a local park that has a big flat surface that kids use to ride their bikes, scooters and skates. Perfect for practicing.

And after a few false starts, I got it. Like a switch got flicked. I was suddenly balancing, and going forward for long stretches, and not tipping sideways or falling off. I have almost mastered turning left and turning right still needs work. But I’m doing it. I learned something new!

And guys? Riding a scooter is FUN. I want to ride all the time. I was totally disappointed that I had to take the car to work the next day and not ride the scooter.

That said, I still need a bit more practice before I’m comfortable going the full 3 km to work, but thankfully I have another week or so before we move to practice.

6 months in numbers

Roughly 6 months ago, I was let go from my job of 4 and a half years. In that time I have been job searching, reading a ton and learning front end web development by teaching myself HTML and CSS.

Its been an extremely wild 6 months. It was fun. It was stressful. It was enlightening. I got to spend time with Paul, even though he was working during the week. I got to eat lunch with my entire family, every day. I played games with the kids, took them to the park after school and helped with homework. I got to spend the entire summer break and all the Jewish holidays with the kids and Paul. I fell into a funk, especially after each rejection email from a potential job opportunity. I worked through each funk. I started running (and need to get back into it). I taught myself a new skill. I read. A lot.

As of today, the job searching has come to an end since I am now employed in an amazing company and am happily working in my new job! And Im going to be utilising some of the new skills I’ve learned!

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

The process of being (f)unemployed and searching for a job was hard. It certainly wasn’t quick and it took a hell of a lot of work and constant vigilance. It was at times demoralising and at times it was quite a bit of fun. I learned a lot and met some amazing people. The entire process is a post in and of itself.

I definitely could not have done it without Paul and the kids support. They held me up when I thought I would never find a job. They encouraged me to apply for jobs outside my comfort zone. They cheered with me for every interview gotten and hugged me for every position lost. And now here we are on the other side.

And now, the numbers:

  • 6 months
  • 90+ jobs applied for
  • 30+ telephone interviews, skills tests, Skype interviews, psychometric tests and in-person interviews undertaken, from the…
  • 13 companies interviewed with
  • 3 offers made
  • 1 awesome job accepted!

In the last 6 months I have also done the following:

  • Read 194 books
  • Averaging 32 books a month (1 a day!)
  • Averaging 9000 pages read in a month

and:

  • Took various classes on Codecademy in HTML and CSS
  • Joined She Codes;
  • Have had 4 groups lessons
  • Completed 6 lessons on HTML and CSS
  • In the process of coding my own cooking site
  • Starting to learn JavaScript

Some (old?) news.

We have been in Israel for just under 3 years now. I know, 3 years!!

And if you recall I was lucky enough to find a job within our 1st month here.

I have been happily employed in that job for just over 2 and a half years. 

מסיבת יום הולדת של אוריה ואיתי

A few weeks ago, the #BestBossEver called me into her office and told me that they were looking to fill a position in another department and between her and that departments head, they had discussed it and wanted to know if I would like to take the position.

I didn’t even hesitate. I said yes.

Since then its been a bit of a whirlwind.

I’ve trained my replacement, trained and done a handover on my new position and started working my new position full time.

This has been a huge learning curve for me. It has been a very long time since I worked directly with clients and its taken some getting used to. But I feel like I’m getting the hang of things.

I’m lucky to work with a fantastic team of people and the fact that I’ve only moved to a new department and have know the team for years already has been a huge help.

I’m still nervous about all the things I don’t know but excited about everything I get to learn too.  Like how to dial into a conference call (I know right? So adult!).

So, that’s where I am. It’s sure to be a wild ride but I’m looking forward to it.

*Photo by Paul

I’m a productive member of Israeli society!

So, my little {adventure the other day} was for a job interview.

I didnt want to say anything about the interview because I didn’t want to jinx it. According to everyone I spoke to and everything I have read, finding a job as a new immigrant can take a while.  So I was hesitant to be too vocal about the opportunity.

trees*

Anyway, I went for the interview which went very well and I got the job!  I start on Sunday! (The work week in Israel is Sunday to Thursday or (half day) Friday).  I get Friday off, which is amazing, the kids are at school on a Friday morning which means I get to do shopping and have some time to myself.

Im so excited. Its a fantastic company, about 60 employees, and it looks like a fun and relaxed environment.  The position is specifically for an English speaker and pretty much everyone in the company speaks English.  Although I am going to hound the Hebrew speakers to help me with my vocab since having a full time job will pretty much mean I can’t go to Ulpan (hebrew lessons) full time.

bicycle

The hours are long but are flexible with when I can start/finish, so if I wanted to start early and end early I could, which might have to happen once Paul gets a job and depending on his hours, in order for me to fetch kids from school/aftercare**.

I’m really looking forward to going to work.  Staying home and reading all day sounds great in theory but it gets old pretty fast.  Im looking forward to using my brain and interacting with new people.

stairs

I will let you know how it goes on Sunday 🙂

*All the photos in the post were taken by my amazing Hubband and are in and around Modi’in.

**The school system here is a whole blog post on its own and a very interesting topic, watch this space!

 

 

Funny Funny Funny

Do you enjoy a good belly laugh?

Do you enjoy hanging out with friends?

Do you enjoy good eats and drinks?

If you answered yes to any or all of the above then join us at BLIKSEM!  A evening of friends, eats, drinks and belly laughs provided by the hysterically funny Mark Banks!

Bliksem!

When it rains…

Today started of quite well.  I woke up on time, got hugs and kisses from Aaron and was out the door without a hitch.  Then I got to work…

We have spent many many hours capturing data for a new project, we have had some hiccups but they seemed to be sorted out and we started to capture the financial info for a debit run that needs to be finalised on Thursday (thats tomorrow just so you know).  Three days later we come across a small massive glitch in the system, our data has disappeared.  We were checking each batch as they were posted to the system and they were fine until this morning when one batch wasnt there, so we went back and spot checked other batches and THEY. WERE. MISSING!  They were there yesterday and the day before but now they are gone!

To make matters worse our programmer has no frigging clue why this is happening!  She will be back tomorrow and hopefully with a little more work she can figure it out.  If she doesnt… well lets not go there…

Then, yesterday I took my sick baba to the doctor again, he thinks Aaron needs to be nebulised and gave me a prescription for him and one for some meds I need.  I got home too late to fill it so Paul scanned it and faxed it to Dischem so that I could collect it today.

I called Dischem at 12:15 to confirm that everything was in order and that I could collect at 1pm.  I informed them that there were two scripts and that they were for me and for Aaron.  The lady on the phone assured me they were ready to be collected.  When I got there only my script was filled.  They didnt even have Aarons.  The same one that was faxed at the same time as mine!

This is not the first time that a faxed script has been lost by them.  Thats why I called to check it was ready.  I gave the poor pharmacist such a  go that half the customers were giggling at us and half were backing away very slowly.

When I got back to work I tried faxing the script again but could not get through to either of the two fax numbers they gave me.  So in desperation I sent our office driver to them with the original.   I then called to make sure they had it and am now going to collect it all after work.

GGGGRRRRRR!!!!!

On a happier note, I love the Woolies Sale.  I got me a lovely white handbag for R112.00 marked down from R250.00 and a JT T-shirt for R37.00 instead of R90.00.  WIN!

Designing Women

Last week our new CorelDRAW arrived at work.  Fortuitously, we have a breakfast event coming up soon and Wendi and I got to play with our new toy.

I L.O.V.E. it!  It is so easy to use that even someone like me that has no experience in Corel managed to create not one but two amazing flyers.

Im itching to do some more and to try out the Corel PHOTO-PAINT that came with it.

I see many hours playing working in my future.

Weirded Out

Have you ever met someone and instantly felt the hairs on your arms rise up?  Then they speak and the hairs on the back of your neck join in.  After five minutes you just think to yourself, “dude, please don’t stand so close/talk to me/come anywhere near me”!

We have a new guy at work.  He freaks me out completely!  He is chatty and all about being my best friend, he is also old, much older than me, in his late 60’s old.  He does everything slowly and methodically and slowly.  He was hired as our new driver.  He hasn’t driven yet.  He is doing admin stuff like filing, slowly. He keeps coming to tell me what he has done and lands up talking for ten minutes about crap I have no interest in.  He seriously Freaks. Me. Out!!!!

I am not a sociable person, at least not with weird older guys at work.  I have friends, I have colleagues who are friends, I don’t need anymore.