Sitting on a cloud ... cloud #9 to be exact!

Can't begin to tell you how I feel tonight ... I got told today that the Supervisor job had been officially announced, so I could move back to shift work as from their starting date, which is 3 May - I hadn't realised how much the uncertainty of dates had been weighing down on me until I got given the news ... I feel as if a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders - a weight I hadn't realised was there! I am incredibly happy and just about giggling like a schoolgirl ... it feels as though I'm finally "there", wherever "there" is :) I am sat here supping red wine at 5.30pm in celebration - so it might end up being an early night for me as I haven't eaten anything except muesli and yoghurt and it's going straight to my head haha. I've always been happy about the promotion, but there was always this niggle at the back of my mind about the loss of money etc being on day work, that I'd been trying to ignore ... but at least now I know I'll only have two pay-days coming up where the money is appalling compared to normal, then it's back to the real world again. There's no other way to describe it ... I feel ecstatic!!! The other great news, is that I can now definitely travel to NZ for my Mum's 70th birthday - I would have been soooo disappointed if I had to miss out on it ... if I was on day shift then I would have had to stay home ... I'm still going ahead with the debt consolidation, as it will give me so much more freedom to do as I please, and not have to penny-pinch day to day ... it's hard to explain, but I feel as though life is for "living" right now.

I've thought a few times of telling the blogging world about my earlier days in moving to Australia, which was a bit soul-destroying and emotional for me, and I may one day feel it's the right time to talk about it, but right now it just seems as if my world is finally coming together for me ... even Fraze said the same thing in an email today, that everything is really happy for me at the moment - and he's right! Life is GOOD!! :D

It's funny ... as I was driving to work the other morning, I was reflecting on something that my Mum said to me years ago ... that in the short time of my life so far, I've done and achieved so many things - I'm never one to sit still and let life pass me by. In 30 years I'd done so many more things that she had done in her lifetime twice that age ... and it got me thinking about it - I really do feel truly blessed in so many ways. I've had so many opportunities to try and experience new things - I've travelled quite a lot, I've done a few adventurous things that have pushed me as a person, and I've had some interesting jobs that have helped shape the person I am today ... I've also been very blessed with the people I've met along life's highway - admittedly, not every one of these relationships has ended pleasantly, but it's all taught me something along life's journey, and brought me to where I am today.

I've always been a very shy and private person ... I don't know what made me do it, but I got a part-time job as a barmaid at a rugby club at a young age, where I stayed for 3 years - Mum reckons that's when I finally came out of my shell (and also what formed the basis for learning my very foul language haha), and I began to open up and stand up for myself. Even though I'm rather large in size, I have an adventurous spirit, and it hasn't stopped me doing some extreme adventure activities, such as white water rafting (on a grade 5 river, but I didn't know that at the time!), tandem parapenting (jumping off a cliff with a parachute - don't want to do that again, as the 'chute collapsed hmmm), jetboating, gliding, and my favourite tandem hang-gliding (which I ended up doing twice 'cos I loved the rush so much). I still have some 'wishes' for the future, the main one being hot-air ballooning - my ultimate would be to do that in France somewhere, sheer heaven.

Heck, I hadn't expected this to be a waffly post, and I'm obviously getting side-tracked, so I think I'll stop there - I'll just summarise saying "I feel good (na na na na na na na.....)" :D If I feel like continuing rambling about my life story, I'll post about it later ;P

I'll leave you with a photo not of Greece this time, but of me hang-gliding at Queenstown, New Zealand :D I got some stitching-related squishy mail today, but I'll leave that until tomorrow when I can take some piccies :)