Back in April I applied for a random graduate scheme vacancy I stumbled upon, not really expecting anything to come of it. I was called in for an interview, which went very well – well enough for the company to send me away with some programming tests for a software engineering role instead of the graduate scheme. Skip a couple of months of testing, going back and forth, meeting various other people, and it turns out Dan & I have to up and move to Leeds as soon as possible. I start my new job as a software engineer as soon as we’ve moved over to Leeds.

I’m gutted to be leaving Rocky Horrors, but I’ve always known deep down that this day would come. I’ve not locked up once this past week without tears in my eyes. I have poured so much of myself into that shop over these past three years, it really feels like home. My colleagues aren’t colleagues, they are family. The role isn’t a job, it’s a part of my identity, part of who I am… But as much fun as it is being a professional Rockys Wench, it’s not a career. It’s never been a long term thing. One day Dan & I want to be buying our own house, getting married, and having cats/dogs/babies etc.  We can’t do this without this huge leap of faith. This is a fantastic opportunity for both of us – I’ll be starting on an amount equal to our combined income two months ago, and I’ll be given so much in the way of training and other benefits it’s almost unbelievable. There are heaps more opportunities for Dan out in Leeds too – everything is very exciting right now. Exciting and terrifying, but we have each other. I don’t think I could do this without him.

We’re in a total state of chaos at the minute – turns out trying to pack your life up into boxes and move to another city as soon as you possibly can is horrible. We’re super stressed out, barely sleeping, and very thankful of our close friends and family. I’ll be updating my Twitter as much as possible, so if you want to keep up to date follow me here.

Thankfully life isn’t all stress and panic and nostalgia – as always, toys and cute things are keeping me sane and happy.

This is Captain Cobalt. He is an exclusive Super Duper Caped Cavey, only available at San Diego Comic-Con 2010. I’m lucky enough to have some awesome friends, who happened to be out in San Diego for said con, and happen to be very enthusiastic about seeking out toys for me!

Hope everyone is well in internet lands – I’m off to listen to some Ministry and wait for Dan coming home.

I’ve set up a place for a mobile photoblog – fauxtographic – I’ll be posting random shots straight off my new phone, taken and processed and uploaded all with the power of Android (& it’s apps) and the lovely WordPress. Go have a look if you’re interested, and let me know what you think!

One of the apps I’ve really been enjoying is the Retro Camera app – it’s really fun for a free app, and it can produce some really good images. I took this one yesterday afternoon – it’s a very broken piano over at Dan’s grandpa’s old house. His uncle Phil is in the process of doing the house up, so it’s a wee bit messy…

I also downloaded Flickr Droid so I can upload to Flickr and keep on top of things there whilst I’m out and about, and I do believe that Twidroid is my new favourite Twitter friend. In exciting news there is a WordPress app for Android, which I am pleased to say I have installed – it is excellent, does exactly what it says on the tin. This fills me with lots of exciting ideas! I’m thinking about starting some kind of 365 days photo project, or maybe just a little mobile photoblog kind of thing… anyone got any thoughts on this? I think I want to keep glitterbat.net as a place for longer entries, detail, old school sitting at my laptop or the big rig posts.

Oh, and my fringe is purple again – well, almost black for now. The magic of the purple dye I use means that it starts out black-ish (with a super bright purple flash in sunlight!) then fades through many other purples to a hideous pink (that most people like ) before being re-dyed. The Enchanted Forest green was very nice, but it only lasted for about two weeks before looking pastel-y turquoise. The purple feels more like me anyway, it’s been like this for a long time now, and it’s kind of who I am.

Today I picked up my Hey Cavey from the Post Office! Caveys are a new line of adorable plush toys from Holly at A Little Stranger. Mine is a Brown Bear Cavey, limited to just 10 of his kind, and I was lucky enough to just get the very last one!

I fell in love with the Brown Bear Cavey because his colouring makes him look just like the teddy bear I had as a child, Mr Ted. I will have to get a picture of them together some time! Brown Bear Cavey has been hanging out with me all day – hiding with Dan’s chilli plants, and enjoying the shade outside our house. I think I’m going to have some wonderful adventures with my new friend!

You can find out more about Cavey and future releases at the Hey Cavey website. Be sure to check out the Hey Cavey pool on Flickr too for more cuteness!

Yes, that IS an Oreo cupcake. Yes, it WAS delicious. The cakey part had chocolatey cookie flecks, the buttercream was to die for, and the Oreo was just… nom! Hevs had a vegan Jammy Dodger cake that looked (& I assume tasted) equally wonderful.

I tried bubble tea for the first time -

I had strawberry flavoured bubble tea – it was as sickly sweet as the colour may suggest. Strangely addictive, I’ve been looking around for tapioca pearls online since last week now, and aching to try more flavours. I still can’t get an accurate picture of my green fringe – it’s actually impossible.

We rounded the day off in Oklahoma, with more tea drinking and cake consumption. This is the (amazing!) vegan toffee cake I had.

Cake and tea and chatter with Hevs is something I have missed. It’s hard to believe that the last time we saw each other was in November 2008. We used to hang out and visit each other loads, but since we both finished university work has always gotten in the way, and trying to arrange to spend time together has been like trying to herd cats. Hopefully no more!

Anywho, today is my first proper day off in ages – nothing urgent to do, nowhere specific to go, and I am a happy bunny because of this. What do you like to do when you have, well, nothing to do?

I got around to trying www.graze.com a couple of weeks back, with a free code from a friend of mine. I’m so glad I did, the Graze boxes are amazing! Basically they send you a box of tasty natural treats and nibbly bits through the post. This box had flapjacks, cherry juice soaked raisins,mixed  rice crackers and a nut mix with brazil nuts, almonds and pecans. DELICIOUS TIMES!

If anyone reading fancies a free box (and a second box half price) visit the link above and use the following code: 872WM2G - it’s such a good service, and I’m getting boxes sent every week now. Way more fun than a bag of crisps!

Me & Dan are enjoying the nice weather with frequent walks in the countryside. The picture of Berlin was taken a couple of nights ago whilst walking in Padley Gorge. It’s so beautiful down there, you can easily forget about the rest of the world. It’s also been a good excuse to become a little more familiar with the DSLR. Dan’s ever so patient with me, and super encouraging.

I have a horrible headache. I think there may well be a(nother) storm coming… urgh. I’m off for now! x

The only thing I will say is that the colour in the photos is much too blue – it’s more green in real life. I don’t think I look too rough on those pics, considering they were taken after 8 hours at the shop on the hottest day of the year so far. Winner!

Last weekend we went to Alton Towers (again!) and finally got a chance to ride Thi3teen. It was entirely worth the 80 minute queue – not as scary as all the promo hype had built it up to be, but still amazingly fun. I’d love to go again soon, but it’s already twice this year now! We are rollercoaster nerds though, heh. One day we’ll have the money to go on a crazy coaster holiday to the USA. One day…

Knitting has been put on hold for a bit – I have a sleeve to finish, then I can sew up the Blythe sweater I’ve been making. I’ve not done any crochet in a couple of weeks either, but I did make a set of hats with some tasty alpaca flavoured yarn. Last night was the first chance I’d had to take some pictures (ie. free time after work + nice weather = GO GO GO!) so Dan & I went to Graves Park for a little adventure.

I took literally dozens of pictures, and had a really hard time deciding which ones to upload. Click here to see the rest from this little excursion. Dan took the DSLR out with us, and I had a little play with it for the first time. I’m getting much more confident with it now, and I’m really pleased with how the pictures came out. This is one of the photos I took with the DSLR -

I’m in love with how dreamy it came out – I think it really works with the fuzzy little hats.

Right then. I suppose I’d better run away now, and get on with the million and one things I have to do. Hopefully it won’t be too long until my next update!

Rock pools are magical.

Dan & I went for an impromptu picnic up Padley Gorge way last night, seeing as it’s nice weather and all. We spotted a familiar looking Polo in the car park, and ended up watching the sunset with Jamie on some rocks. Surprise View car park means surprises!