Skint Setter Upper

2015 is set to be the year of dating according to my fabulous single friends.

As someone with a bit of experience of online dating (mostly good, occasionally horrifying), my fellow 'Single Ladies' tonight asked me to draft up profiles which will help them lure in the most handsome fishy out there. I feel like such a pimp!

It is always a nightmare writing about yourself, but I found it the easiest thing in the world coming up with witty and truthful profiles to advertise my best friends. Why is it that we can see other's charm and desirability so clearly, yet we look in the mirror and all we focus on is imperfection?

So while my own online dating profile is becoming stagnant through lack of use, tonight I became the Welsh version of the Millionaire Matchmaker.

These are the blurbs I provided for my friends - if you knew them I think you'd agree this sums each of them up perfectly. Who knew you only needed 3 sentences to convey someone's personality!

Friend 1
I work with children so I definitely don't want a childish guy.
I have two sisters so need a man's man; not someone who takes longer than me to get ready!
My friends would say I'm funny, lovable and just the right amount of weird.

Friend 2
I'm a nurse but I only wipe bums at work so please don't shit yourself in my company.
I work in A&E and have seen lots of crazy things so not much shocks me.
Must like dogs, the outdoors and banter - taking as well as giving!

So 2015 as a year for dating. It's actually the Chinese Year of the Sheep. As Welsh girls I think that's a sign!

5 things you learn when hunting for a home

As I am relocating to one of my favourite places in the world this September I have started the task of finding myself a gorgeous little apartment I can call my own. I've taken to pining over pinterest ideas of what my new home will look like, anticipating craftiness and vintage finds to make it unique and quirky. What I didn't anticipate was how tedious and tiring I would find actually sifting through the dozens of flats which should only be used as on location spots for horror movies.

Things I have learnt today traipsing around the South West include:

1. In town centres, parking is a privilege only the rich can afford. You can expect to pay around £100 extra on rent per month just to park outside a flat grottier than 12 Grimmauld Place. 
2. Size matters. I've said it before but this time I'm talking property. I saw places even a Hobbit would struggle to move around in. Claustrophobia central.
3. Online photographs of an "immaculate" flat will not do justice to the reality of the place. 
4. Blinding headaches are par for the course.
5. Same goes for mouldy fridges and dirty toilet bowls.

Fabulous?

Or drabulous??

Wish me luck for my next batch of viewings which I am yet to book through fear of the same experience!!

2014 IS my year!

Since 2011 I have been telling anyone who would listen that 2014 would be my year. I just had this gut feeling.

I knew 2012 would be a write off as I had only just finished university, was back living with my Dad and had only just started my first real job after four long years in University.

2013 ends in the number 13. Enough said.

So at the beginning of this year I told myself that if I wanted 2014 to be my year, I would need to be proactive and make it happen.

I turned into a yes person and took the trip of a lifetime to Washington and Vancouver at Easter to visit my best friends boyfriend, met some of his amazing friends and family and saw some of the most breathtaking scenery.

It was the best trip I have ever been on and it made me realise that I had let myself get stuck in a rut; still living in my home town and surrounded by people who know everything about me, I felt like I was living in a fish bowl.

I began applying for jobs elsewhere and even had an interview in Luton, which was dreary, drab and depressing. The job would have been a step sideways and I would have been miles from home and with no friends nearby.

Luckily I didn't get the job. The evening that they told me I had been unsuccessful, I happened to browse through jobs on PR Week, a website I hadn't thought to search on before. I am not a huge believer in fate, but if I had been offered that job in Luton and I hadn't visited that site, I would not have seen my dream job in my dream location with only two days left to apply.

After a great interview I was offered the job. Three weeks later, today I have FINALLY received written confirmation that my references had checked out so I was able to hand my notice in to my current employer.

As of Monday 8th September I will be a PR & Communications Officer in Taunton! A promotion and I get to move to the South West, one of my favourite places in the world! I will be closer to my best friend, and will be escaping the fish bowl of Caerphilly!

And it is only August, so come on 2014 what else have you got up your sleeve?

Dust unsettled.

After a week of not talking, the youngster drunk dialled me on Tuesday night. He had graduated earlier that day and was out with his fellow 22 year olds. Needless to say, being an oldie (I am quarter of a century now), I was already in bed at 10pm when he called.

So I tried my hardest to play hard to get, but I have never been that strong. I text him the next day to say congratulations for graduating and he called me. We spoke for a while and it was really good to hear from him so I decided to agree when he asked if he could take me for dinner.

Yesterday was one of the best dates I've had in a long time. We spent 8 hours together eating, talking, watching films, watching the sun go down over Cardiff Bay (I know, I just made myself vomit too!) and it felt amazing. He has completely unsettled my plans to give up men for a while!

And part of the problem is that I got some amazing news this week. I'm moving to my spiritual home (Somerset/Devon) soon as I have just been offered an amazing job opportunity which is a wonderful career move for me. So I think I am going to have to attempt to be detached from the "relationship" we've got and have as much fun with him while I can, but still keep in the back of my mind that I know it isn't right and that this move will be the best thing to happen to me in a long time.

I've been saying 2014 would be my year for about 3 years. It looks that way career wise, but on the man front it's all still up in the air.

Another one bites the dust

This is a post-"break-up" post. But don't be scared off straight away; I won't be banging on about how devastated/angry/insecure I am.

This latest three month fling was with, shock horror, a younger man!! I never thought I'd find myself dating someone three years my junior, but it happened. He was tall, dark and had amazing dimples so I could overlook the age. Mostly because everyone I have ever been with has been older and has still acted about 12 years old.

But then he went to Europe for a few weeks and while he was away and telling me he was missing me, I was at home enjoying my single life with the girls again and not really believing him anyway. I was right not to believe him because I found out through a Facebook comment sent to another person that he was home, and got so fed up of waiting to actually see him that I resorted to a text to call it off, feeling just as childish as all those idiots I've dated before!

Instead of feeling vulnerable, which is the normal reaction to finding myself without a man to give me attention and have regular sex with, I am feeling positively perky. I had a great day in work, when in the past I could be found blubbering in the bathroom after a break-up. I came home to an amazing letter, which could possibly be the best opportunity of my career and my life. And I've spent my evening sniggering at old Sex and the City episodes, feeling a huge sense of female camaraderie with these timeless characters, relying on Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Sam to make me laugh because all my besties are busy.

My best friends for the night

And now I have an amazing weekend ahead, with a night out on the cards for friend's birthday on Saturday. As they say "another one bites the dust". But I'm just going to dust off my dancing shoes for an amazing night with the girls and forget all about him.

Running scared

I have signed up for my first half marathon.

I honestly never thought I would think/say/write those words in my life but here I am, aching all over after just six miles of training this week, wondering what on Earth I have got myself into!

I'm not new to running, and have four shiny medals to show for the 10k races I have entered in the past two years.

But a half marathon is a truly terrifying prospect. The furthest I have ever run is 10 km or 6.2 miles. A half marathon is 21 km or 13.1 miles! I'm not even sure my little, weak ankles will carry my happy fatty body that far but I am determined, and now I have set up a JustGiving page to raise money for a charity I MUST NOT back out!!

The charity I'm supporting by plodding heavily through the streets of Cardiff will be CoppaFeel. I actually signed up for the race without the intention of raising money for any charity, but a week or two after I signed up I watched a documentary on BBC3 about this amazingly inspiring young women, not much older than me, who was diagnosed with terminal Breast Cancer in her early 20s. Instead of running scared, she is bravely educating other young girls and women on the importance of getting to know your own boobs.

So get checking your boobies girlies, and if you would like to support the charity (and me on my run) you can donate at: www.justgiving.com/Emily-Worthington2/

Life is shit, and then you step in some

I don't normally get angry about anything but I was seething with fury this week.

I stepped out of my car onto MY drive and then stepped a little bit onto MY garden before I went through the front door. I then walked through the hall and into the kitchen before I realised I had walked dog shit all through the carpet!! Some disgusting person had let their dog poo on my garden and then didn't pick it up. 

So to all the horrible, irresponsible dog owners who don't pick up after their poor pooches relieve themselves, I hope you watch this video and feel shamed into picking up!