End of October

I have had a good October. I ticked off a couple of my tasks and enjoyed myself doing them. I loved the Cheltenham festival and will continue going to literary festivals when I get the opportunity. There seems to be a lot of them around!

I didn't get my swims in though for October. I did go for a swim once which was when i was in cheltenham. For some reason I have been feeling very tired over the last couple of weeks. I think the clocks going back didn't help. Anyway because of this I've not been swimming for the second time. I will aim to go an extra time this month to get up the number. I'm not going to beat myself up about it because that's not what the list is about! I have enjoyed going swimming and I will continue to do so and that is what counts most!

I have been doing a lot more in my life because of this list but also as my friend is doing the 101 challenge and I've been doing lots of things with her. I am living life to enjoy it. I love being out and about doing things with friends and today I went to Oxford. I had a great time. We went to the Castle and I got freaked out by a man dressed as a monk pretending to be a ghost!! We then went to Christ Church College and had a look around there. This is where parts of Harry Potter was filmed but I was more interested in just taking a look around the place. I tried to imagine being a student at a university like that but couldn't quite get my head around it! The library wasn't open to the public but it looked amazing through the windows! I would like to visit the Bodlein library but unfortunately it's not open on Sunday's to the public so that will have to wait for another time!

The most exciting achievement and working towards a task was the library job at work coming up. I would love to get the job but am trying not to get my hopes up too much. I handed my application in on Friday and the closing date is tomorrow. I will hopefully hear by the end of the week, if not the beginning of the following week, whether I've got an interview or not. Not to blow my own trumpet but I will be surprised if I don't get an interview as I did meet all the criteria in the person spec and I made sure I referred to all of them in my application. Getting the job though is a different matter! Anyway whatever happens just having the opportunity to apply for it has been exciting. I wasn't expecting to get in to a full time library job so soon in the challenge so if it does happen it's going to be a very happy bonus!

My best achievement for October has been not spending any money whatsoever on credit cards. This has been the first month I've done that and will aim to not spend on them again over November. With Christmas coming up I'm envisaging it's going to be tough but I will just rein in spending on myself!

I now have November to focus on. This month I will be choosing another charity to give to and hopefully get in at least 2 if not 3 swims. I don't have any other particular plans for any of my other tasks this month. I've got my brother and his wife coming to stay for a weekend this month and we're going to a football match so I won't have any spare money to do anything else special. Having said that I am hoping to book a youth hostel in Edinburgh for the festival next year. I have got two friends who are up for coming and I've seen hostels cheaply for a room for 4 people so I'll find one other person and pay a deposit for it. You need to book early for somewhere to stay over the festival and the deposits are minimal so there's not much to lose to book it now!