And again

...... once more, feeling special?? lol

So, Ive been given my official start date today, September 7th :) which will be the last week of Ramadhan. Ive written to the manager to make sure they are ok with me taking the three days off for my wedding, so we will wait to see what he says. Currently Im writing out my letter of resignation to print out at work (cheeky eh?!) and give in tomorrow insha'Allah.
Grandad is still in hospital, they have an operation to do but will only decide whether to do it based on some tests he has to go for. Basically they wont decide whether to put him in for the operation until mid September :( otherwise he will have to have a catheter inserted for the rest of his life, which I cant really see him doing. Allahu alim.
We are still looking at cars, thinking more of a VW now, a polo perhaps or a toyota avensis, we have been watching reviews on youtube lol :) I would like a newer car with me being out at such random times.. my mum suggested getting a taxi to work for a few weeks (and the bus back in the afternoon) so we can save up a little extra money, we will see... Have to also figure out the parking situation too, insha'Allah we may have found a way around it as our neighbour parks his van in the customer car park for the shop we live above so we will see if we can do the same thing insha'Allah.
Ramadhan is nearly here... are you excited?? prepared? Im actually not as prepared as I thought I would be this time last year.. but I have certain books I want to read, stitching I want to finish, lectures I want to listen to and surahs I want to memorise so insha'Allah.. what are your plans ladies? Ive already made a batch of samosas, going to finish them this weekend, then try my hand at making the pastry and making meat samosas (well hes going to do the meat bit) Also going to make a batch of coconut biscuits, gingerbread biscuits and Im planning on a few new dishes throughout the month insha'Allah

Bedtime for us... peace and salams,
Ammena

Update for Ms Rainbow

It has been a little while and I do apologise to all my readers, life has been pretty hectic lately. We had to make the trip up north for my great aunties funeral, we decided to leave a little early and got to visit my grandad in hospital too alhamdulillah. They have found out what it is, apparently his bowel is leaking into his bladder which is causing the infection and the great amount of pain he's in. Only problem is they seem to be taking their sweet time getting him into theatre to get it sorted :(
Ive been communicating with the guy who is to be my boss in the new place :) Things are moving along alhamdulillah, he's fine with both of my references and now Im just waiting to be given the all clear health wise. Although I really dont understand how they can see Im fit for the job by asking my previous experience with chemicals and lifting, or my height, or whether I suffer from diabetes/ high blood pressure/ hayfever/ etc. Once Ive been given the all clear I can give my months notice in at work. I dont know whether I want to start as early as possible or as late as possible, early would be bad for Ramadhan especially with the super early starts, also it gives us less time to find a car but early would be good as the extra money would come in for when we get married. However, late would be good because of the holiday issue and I need to take holidays for the wedding as well as for when we go to the home office to sort out hubby's papers... I guess Allahu alim right ;) insha'Allah it will work out well either way.
I found out yesterday that my student loan, as of the end of March was just over £8K which Im so pleased about... then I was even more pleased because I have still been putting money away since March which means that Im actually around the £7,500 mark which I was super excited at.. with the extra money from this new job and when hubby can start working full time hours, insha'Allah Im looking to have it paid off by next year which Im super super excited at alhamdulillah.

Ok time to eat.. Aloo Gobi :) yummy... back soon insha'Allah

Good news??

Im welcoming it with open arms I can tell you that!! Ive been offered a new job alhamdulillah. It is the job I told you about in this previous blog, apparently the guy who was originally hired pulled out last minute. The supervisor sent me an email to give him a call this morning and at 1530 today I was officially offered the position. I was sooo excited, I got on the phone straight away to hubby who is very excited for me too. Its a good move for me work wise as my new title will be 'pharmaceutical manufacturing scientist' I will be working with anti cancer drugs, so its something that I will be using my degree for. I cant wait to get started insha'Allah.

Just wanted to fill you all in :D

Interview

I didnt tell you all about interview 2, but I actually got offered the position on Monday.. I pondered, but eventually I rejected the offer on Tuesday morning. There was just too much upheaval for not enough pay really, two buses, one hour each way.. starting work at 6am and finishing at 9pm some times, so I could be leaving for work at 5am and coming home at 10pm... he did say I could do 4 day weeks working longer hours to get the 37.5hours... but still its the travelling and the extra money just isnt enough to save up quickly for a car... so we will see what the other interview brings about. I phoned the guy for the first interview who said that he should hear in the next 2 weeks max whether there will be a second position and that there was 2 or 3 people including myself going for this position. They wont be advertising again for it which is a bonus.. so insha'Allah something will work out. If I dont get this position, I think Im going to take a break from applying for jobs until hubbys application is sent off insha'Allah.
Peace and salams
Ammena

Interview 1

So I got there super early this morning even after getting super lost in the hospital grounds ;) The building is very modern masha'Allah and when I called in to be buzzed in I was actually greeted by the guy I was in contact with which was weird. I was expecting some sort of reception where I could sit for 10 minutes to collect my thoughts and go over the job description but no, they had me jumped right in ;) I thought the interview went ok, it was the usual... this is the job, now tell us about you. Then they threw in a few questions they picked up out of my CV and all was good, they mentioned that there would be another position coming up in a months time and someone is going on maternity leave in a northern branch if I was interested in that.
I asked them to clarify the working hours and went on to ask how long people can take for holidays maximum, which led me to tell them about my Walimah in Pakistan which is going to be a 3/4 week holiday... answer?? not impossible, never had this situation arise here ;) so we will see.
So Ill give you a general brief... 12 hour shifts 230-1430 yup u read right, 230am til 230pm.. basically you get there in the morning, have your work ready that you need to finish for the day, so if you finish your work early you can go home early :) but if you have a bad day and dont get finished, you have to stay until its all finished. There is no annual leave because of how the days work... so on week 1 you work thursday and friday, week 2 monday, tuesday and wednesday then you dont work until the following thursday. So really you have every weekend off and have a week off inbetween work, for the annual leave you just move shifts around.. another person works your thursday friday and you can have a week off.
Im not too sure if I like the specifics so Im just gonna sit it out until the end of the week when he said I should hear back from them, and see what they say. No point in worrying about a situation until it happens, even then I have to learn no point in worrying ;) lol
Anyways, just wanted to get it all down on 'paper' for ya
Peace and salams, Ammena