Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Pay Package Description

If you're starting a new job or getting a promotion, keep this in mind!


WHAT MY MANAGER OFFERED...


WHAT HR PROMISED...






WHAT I UNDERSTOOD THAT TO MEAN...





WHAT I RECEIVED ... BEFORE TAX



WHAT I RECEIVED ... AFTER TAX




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Thursday, April 19, 2007

Gratitude Journal: I Am a Good Person

I am a good person.

But I am a good person with a lot of flaws.

One of my biggest flaws is that I nearly always look for the negative in people. If you ask me a simple question about someone e.g ‘What is so and so like?’ more often than not, I will answer the question by starting with a lengthy list of the not-so-nice things about this person. I don’t know why I do this. Perhaps I feel that by undermining another person it makes me look better to others. Or maybe by painting a not so positive picture about another makes me feel better about myself.

However, I shall not dwell on the why’s and why nots. All I know is that I carry this trait and I do not like it and I want to do something about it.

It has been really difficult for me to admit this flaw of mine – everyone wants to appear perfect, not so? - but at the same time it is refreshing, a release almost, to do so. By acknowledging this flaw, I can confront it, deal with it and move on. Something I have every intention of doing.

So today, I am grateful that I can be brutally honest about this.
I am grateful that I have the strength to acknowledge and admit this.
I am grateful that I am willing to make a change and by so doing become a better person. Because…

I am a good person.

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Today I am starting a gratitude journal. Something I have been wanting to do for years but have never got round to doing. I have started one a few times in the past but I always found myself running out of things to be grateful for. One of the reasons being that I focused on the ‘big’ stuff and overlooked the little things I should also have been grateful for e.g finding a parking spot, receiving an unexpected phone call/letter/email that brightened my day or even just finding a penny on the street. Little things but little things that mean a lot – if only we took the time to notice them.

I recently heard somewhere that the more we are grateful for the stuff we have in our lives the more we open up ourselves to more good stuff entering our lives. I like this thought.

And so this is the beginning for me. I decided to post my first journal entry here ( the only one I shall post because I get a feeling that many of the entries will be too personal to share on my blog) to perhaps encourage you to start a gratitude journal as well because, as I have heard countless other people say, it will change your life. I don’t know if it will change mine, but I sure as hell want to find out. Don't you?

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Sunday, April 15, 2007

Age Ain't Nothing But A ....

OMG! It’s finally hit me. I am expecting a baby and in the next 8 weeks I will be giving birth to my 2nd child!! Then from henceforth, I will forever be known as ‘PTS, 37, mother of two’. Arrrggghhh!!!

I’ve blogged in the past about how I feel slightly disconnected from this pregnancy – work + home+ mummy duties making it difficult to give my full attention to it – and so I have thought about it in a slightly detached way, almost like the whole experience were happening to someone else. But sitting on my bed today looking through the bag full of stuff I just purchased to tide me over the initial pre and post-birth period (yes, you will be proud of me. After my dream the other night, I ran out and bought everything from nipple shields to a baby rattle) the penny dropped. This. Is. Real. I. AM. Having. A. Baby. In eight weeks time I am going to be smelling of baby sick, going slightly deranged from lack of sleep and nursing sore nipples! Oooh, I feel faint. I’m going to have to lie down for a minute to recover…

What happened to that footloose fancy free 18 year old I used to be? I look at myself in the mirror and I don’t feel a day past 18. Okay make that 21. The point is I FEEL YOUNG. Incredibly so. And sometimes as I live my life I feel like I am playing pretend – dressing up, going to work, earning a living, paying a mortgage, y’know, grown up stuff – but there are always little things lurking out there to remind me that I am not playing pretend and indeed, I am getting on in years. Take the other day for example when my husband mentioned something about his 17 -year- old employee. I was genuinely startled to realise that she is 20 years younger than me. And I thought to myself ‘little old me, 20 years older than somebody’. It was a sobering thought, I can tell you that.

But then your friends stab you in the back and start growing older as well which serves as a harsh reminder that you are too. For instance, I was in London two weeks ago to attend a friends 40th birthday party. Can you imagine, I actually have a close friend who is FORTY YEARS OLD. It’s enough to make me weep.

So you think you are not getting old? Well, here’s my little list to gently remind you that you are.

You know you are getting old when ….

1. You begin to eye up anti-wrinkle cream with great interest.
2. You start turning into your mother.
3. You find yourself starting your sentences with ‘In my day…’
4. You can exclaim ‘Gosh you’ve grown. The last time I saw you you were this high…’ (didn’t you just hate being told that when you were little?)
5. You start taking life altering decisions.
6. You scan your TV channels looking for the news.
7. You actually ENJOY watching the news.
8. You skip all the hot trendy ‘in-season’ fashions for more ‘timeless and classic’ stuff.
9. You remember the first time you watched Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
10. You remember Michael Jackson.

And finally you know you are definitely getting old when you wake up at 4 O’clock in the morning to blog about it!

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Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Rude Awakening

I woke up from my dream this morning in a cold sweat. I had been dreaming that I had gone into labour – and I still have nine weeks to go!! Yes, dear folks, the time of my baby’s arrival draws quickly nigh.

This dream has been a rude awakening for me as it has now hit home that I have purchased absolutely nothing for the baby or myself. Okay, I have bought a few baby grows but that’s about it. I walk into the baby section of shops and just stand there looking – not having a clue what to buy. My husband warned me cautiously the other day not to be too blasé about it all because it could turn round and bite me in the bum. And he is right.

So today I shall sit down and make a list of stuff I need to buy for my pending new mum status and although I still have some to go before my due date, I shall be packing my hospital bag this week – just in case.

PS: Hope you all had a great Easter break!

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