Friday, March 02, 2018

The one where I find happiness.

Whoever said money can't buy happiness clearly wasn't into Lego.
I started with some mini builds of "Seasonal" sets. Very cute and very, very, very quick to put together.

Halloween 2017 Set

Halloween Set 2017

Halloween Set 2015 - Trick or Treat!

Halloween Set 2015 - Trick or Treat!
 Then there was the big build, there are three floors, so I did a floor at a time. It took me a few weeks to finish it entirely as I had to make time on my rare days off to sit and build.
First floor comprises a barber shop and pool hall, with the detectives agency complete with dame on the second floor. The second and third floor on the right are a toilet and kitchen.
Inspired by Prohibition in America, the Lego equivalent is contraband cookies. Which are being made in secret in the top floor kitchen, and smuggled into the pool hall through a secret tunnel from the barber shop.
Detective's Agency - Front View

Detectives Agency - Back View
The next big but not so big build. The Vampyre Castle from the (now sadly retired) Monster Fighters series.


Friday, February 16, 2018

What's new with you?

I have been having an episode, a moment, a, dare I say it, midlife crisis? When I decided to take the leap of faith and do what I'd always wanted to do and went back to study cookery, I knew trying to get into hospitality would be hard. Actually it turned out to be harder than I thought.

There's been some bewilderment at why I would want to start at the bottom doing what one chef referred to, if I'd excuse his language, all the shit jobs.
Because I told him, I know that's where I need to start to get to where I want to be.

I can't be the first person who has made a complete career change later on in their life. Lots of people do it surely?

Work is, well, I like it, I do. But it has made me very restless and anti-social which has led me to be generally unhappy.
I've neglected a lot of things I loved to do, haven't gone out of the house anywhere much but to work. My rare days off seem to revolve around doing laundry and buying cat litter. And checking the job ads.

I've been compiling a list of my skills and past experience that relate to hospitality and looking at what I'm doing now, which is a kitchen job that's not a kitchen job.
If I'm not happy, the only way that's going to change is if I do something about it. No luck so far, but as the slogan goes, you've gotta be in it to win it.

I miss cooking, now that I've gone from consecutive days off to split days off, I don't do it as much. I'd usually shop one day. Running around the supermarket, Asian grocer and heath food stores and the next day, cook.
Despite that I have bought new cookbooks, I've even branched out into gluten free territory to try and teach myself something new.  Fortunately cook books never expire, so they can all sit there waiting.

With the Lunar New year, maybe it's finally time I had a go at making dumplings. It's something that's been on my list of things to do for awhile.

I moved house, downsized on space, much of my life still feels to be in boxes. On the upside of the move, I had a long over due clear out. While it was nice to let some of it go, somethings were harder to let go of, letting go of parts of my life I wasn't really ready to let go of and it feels a little like defeat.
Like the current job search, I'm still hopeful, that I'll move again, into a bigger space, that I'll actually own and can renovate the kitchen - lots of work bench space!

Now I just wait and see what happens.