A was really funny today btw. We were on our way home from school, windows down and in one place there were no cars and we did get some speed.

A: "wow mummy how windy it is"
A (again): Are you driving fast?
Me: yes, quite fast
A: Are you hungry mummy?

:D :D :D

Today R got an email from the company that he went for the interview for last week. It was negative and they didnt offer him a job and R took a sigh of relief. Switzerland was not our first choice at all, we werent even sure if we wanted to move there due to the language problem and the high cost of living. Regardless Im sure it will affect his confidence that he didnt get an offer since he didnt feel he did a bad job during the sim. We had a feeling all along that they would not be interested in him since they would have to pay him as "senior first officer"  which would pay  30 000 CHF (more than 23 000 EUR/20 000 GBP/ 33 000 USD) more as basic and double the hourly pay compared to the other 3 that were called for the simulator. Obviously this is nothing they will ever tell you but I hope and think that that is why he was not offered a job. After all we always felt he was only called for the interview since his chief pilot knows their cheif pilot. That you need contacts for any jobs I can partially understand but how can you have pilot contacts globally? Anyway, this turned into a very messy and confused post, but that is how we feel right now so I guess it fits the mood. R still feels that he learnt a lot from the process, it was good practice for Dubai and there you NEED experience to even apply. Unfortunately it seems that in Europe they dont "pay" for experience and hours, he less hours you have the better. Sad but true.

Tried to order the sandals from Timberland I had picked to replace the all time fav from Kavat that is not being produced this season and it wont allow me since I dont have a UK registered credit card :(

Dont remember if I mentioned it but a month ago I applied for a job. We didnt know what was going to happen with anything and R found a notice in the newspaper for a job for swedish speaking customer support. I applied and today I got an email from them that they want me to come for an interview :O What do I do now? On the one hand we think that we will be leaving from here but on the other hand we dont know if R will get a job and if not  it would be good if I had a job. What a mess it has turned into. I cant go for the interview and pretend like everything is normal cause Im not even ready to start working yet. J only goes to school 3 days a week and how would we make it work? I really need to think this one through....

R is back home from the first selection/interview. He passed from the first day to the second and got to show them his skills in the sim in London. He felt he did ok but said the other guy had a great advantage since he knew what would come as he got the same "problems" as R. No feedback from the employer but they said they would get back to him within a week. Time will tell. Regardless it would be great if he could get an offer, it would settle at least MY nerves and Im sure it would help his confidence for the Dubai interview.

Last night  I had a discussion with a collegue and "friend" of R (its a guy he studied with to become a pilot, no one really close but we have spent a fair share of time together) about the maltese school system. He says Malta is the best and I said I dont agree. He doesnt want to listen and I say that its better if we "agree to disagree". He keeps stuffing his ideas down my throat and I keep telling him that he is not going to change my mind and tell him to stop his ranting. Then he takes it one step further by saying that since i havent been through the whole system (ie I dont have a university degree) I shouldnt discuss such things. He talks down to me as if i was a child.

but you cant pose an argument when you have zero experience about it
[21/03/2011 22:03:46] :D
[21/03/2011 22:03:48] understand?
[21/03/2011 22:03:59] so try not to discuss something you dont know about
[21/03/2011 22:04:14] the system in malta works - and  very well
[21/03/2011 22:04:17] the standard is high

So Im less qualified just cause I dont have a degree? As opposed to him at least I have seen two different school systems. I happen to think that I have a much better base where I have not been forced to study and where I learnt things that you can not learn by heart from a book. As R says, "common sense is not so common in Malta". I cant agree with 5 year olds having 10 homeworks per week and 15 year olds having to quit sports cause they have too much with school. I didnt even bring this up into the discussion since I realized he wouldnt be able to listen, instead I tried over and over to explain that nothing he would say would change my mind. He kept arguing and in the end I had to switch off the IM to stop it.

At least now I know where we stand and I will never look at him the same way, obviously he thinks im worth less since I dont have a degree!

Today its "my" day. R is working and the kids are with their grandparents. Today will be my day to be sad and worried. Have felt for days how the stress is getting to me and I feel like a lousy mum. I have no energy to come up with things or to play and the moodswings are unbelievable. I have accepted that we have to leave Malta but its very stressful not to know where to go. Even though R has two interviews coming up within the next month it does not mean he will be offered a job with either of the companies. The processes are long, in Switzerland 2 days and in Dubai 4! I cant do more than hope that someone will see him for the brilliant, kind and great person he is and I try not to stress him out more than he already is but the question still remains, what do we do if he doesnt get an offer from either of these companies? He sent applications to other places too and he hasnt even been called for interviews!

In this whole mess that our lives are right now we have an even bigger mess in our house. No one has had the engery to do anything and it was so bad we didnt even know from where to start. We had planned to work hard together today but we realized that we had to go get the tickets for the Geneva interview and just like that we were busy all morning. We went together all of us since we had some other things to deal with and we just about made it to pick up A from school.

Thankfully R got started in the afternoon and I couldnt not help out so at least we cleared up a bit which feels good.

I found the time to do some exercise too and for dinner we had ribs. Its my fav right now, tastes like heaven :) R is studying and im going to watch something, either Merlin or One Tree Hill. Hoping for a good day tomorrow....

A´s teacher has asked us for a baby picture of the kids as she has some sort of surprise planned for "open day". Me and R got a trip down memory lane looking at the pictures and this is the one we will give to Ms. Anna.

In november a boy fell in a green area called Chadwick lakes. He was so badly injured that for a long time it wasnt clear if he would live or not. The boy attends the same school as A & J and his younger brother went to pre nursery with A. I knew he was stable and getting better and the other day I saw him and his mother outside school and today I saw this in the newspaper. Phew!

Fall victim Luke Micallef becomes an inspiration (clickable link)

Just got home from diving R to a colleague of his (to catch a ride to the airport for their refresher course) and the kids to school. Only have a few minutes to spare before I have to leave again, this time to the hairdresser and I really need to go! Should have been to cut my hair ages ago but as always I dont plan ahead. Add to this 2 weeks waiting time for an appointment and then she was sick on friday when I was supposed to go made my hair into this mess.  Cant wait to get rid of it!

The carneval has come and gone. "Party" at school and a visit to Valletta to check out the floats.

Here are some pics of my sweet viking and Peppa Pig.

Last few days have been extra tough. After my last post we got some "good" new again, the proposal to the EU was going to be changed. I have all the time felt like its bluffing and lies from the politicians part, pretending that they are trying to keep the pilots. Therefore I have settled myself mentally on us moving on, I cant stand this emotional rollercoster. R on the other hand all of a sudden felt he had started applying too early and almost regretted having interviews to go to. Last thursday though he got an extra flight and they had the minister of finance onboard and after a short talk (the captain is a school friend of the minister) now he feels like me. What a relief! Even though I admit it feels really scary with such an unknown future (even with 2 interviews coming up there we cant be sure he will be offered any jobs) at least it feels great to be on the same page.

...for real. The proposal that the gov will give to the EU is on x planes and x pilots (that means maaaany have to go) so we really have to leave Malta.

Today A went on the scale and here is our conversation

A: How much do I weigh?

Me: Almost 20 kilos!

A: Wow, that´s a lot. Like daddy!

Me (to myself): Not even close....

Wanted to write about this already on Monday but havent managed. When I dropped off J at school there was a mother talking to the head teacher while crying. They spoke maltese so I didnt really get what they were talking about and I didnt want to be nosy so I left J and went around to check up on her through the window (a routine I started when she was crying when I left her, its always nice to see that she is fine without me) and then the head teacher started crying too. She sees me and comes to tell me that one of the girls in their class died that weekend. The mum had given birth to the girls baby sister on friday and the older girl was very unwell, gastric and very high fever so her dad took her to hospital. There she had fits  but the father was told its "normal". On saturday (dont know if it was sat night or friday night but it was passed midnight) the girls granny came so that the father could go home and get some rest in his bed and she found the girl dead in the bed! :O

The teachers were rather upset and I offered to stay for a while and they were very glad I did so. Felt good for me too to be able to do something for them. Its so sad and terrible, such a young girl? How do her parent go on? And in all of this they have a new life to take care of? How can the maltese claim there is good God that helps us if praying? What did this girl do to deserve to die at 2 years of age?

(Just to be clear, the mum in the classroom was not the mother of the girl. She has a son in their class and is also the best friend of the dead girl´s mother)

Almost everything in our lives are circling around the whole job situation. Where would it be best for us to live?

R has been invited for an interview in Switzerland. One day in Geneva with 3 different parts, one technical test, a group exercise and an interview. IF they then like what they see he has to be off for a simulator test in London the following day. Everything should be paid and booked by himself so its not a cheap way of finding a job. Personally I think they should arrange for the London part if they are interested enough in you to want to see you in the sim, they could get you on their own flight to Gatwick and use the hotels they use for their normal sims, Im sure they have good deals. Feeling rather annoyed by the fact that we will have to spend this fair amount of money when we had to cancel our own Londontrip for financial reasons. Interview will also be the same time we had planned to go to London but instead decided to spend max time with the kids, doing only things they like and make sure they are really appreciated. In Switzerland both us and the kids would have to learn new languages, french (if he would be based in Geneva) or german (if he would be based in Basel) and that really scares me. They dont pay really well and Im not even sure we would be able to save any money. On the other hand its still Europe and not so far away from "home".

Then we have the question of Dubai that even with all its drawbacks feels rather tempting since they pay well. There would would surely be able to save money and possibly even travel to places we wouldnt afford if we were to stay here. I have always said I never wanted to live there but maybe I need to re-think? We dont feel like counting every penny to make ends meet.

Apart from all of this there is a chance that we can stay. The union says it looks good, that they will fight until the end, trying to negotiate leases etc for everyone to keep their jobs. Question is for what? Im not even sure the government has the ambition to get the company in shape? In the whole Libya mess they did flights to Tripoli to bring ppl out even though they did them at a loss and who foots the bill? Not the government for sure! What I mean is that we dont want to end up in this position again in 2-3 years, its bloody hell. We dont know what kind of leasing it would be either, maybe he would have to spend lots of time away and that would truly suck.

No one said live would be easy (and he hasnt been offered a job anywhere so far) but I prefer to speculate a bit and think about the different options there might be so that I have an idea what I feel about a place should an opportunity arise.