STILL UNEMPLOYED

I was thinking that it was about time I wrote about being unemployed again as that's what my blog is entitled, but firstly I thought I'd mention something intriguing I read recently in some literature from the NHS.  Apparently eating apples in pregnancy may help prevent asthma in the offspring.  I remember reading while at Thatchers (which happens to be near to my parents) about the health-giving properties of cider.  Apples/cider: presumably cider could have the same asthma-preventative properties as apples?  I have to emphasise that I'm not drinking very much whilst pregnant, but what I have done is switch to cider rather than wine on days when I fancy a glass!
http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=85603

Back to unemployment.  Potentially I feel that I may not be for much longer: I had a letter from Cumbria County Council saying that a job I had applied for was now being considered only for internal applicants, but that if they didn't find anyone then they would be getting back to external candidates; I have an interview on Monday (tomorrow) though it's not for exactly the job I thought I was being put forward for by the recruitment agency; and I'm in the middle of two other applications.  

On the self-employed front there are people I have contacted about contract or freelance work who have said they will bear me in mind, and the talks in Keswick came up with some good ideas in terms of trying to sell some writing: I just need time to get the writing down on paper first!  Plenty to keep me busy, anyway.

Husband doesn't know whether he'll still be in his current job after November, but he's fairly confident he'd find something else.  I'm still convinced that quite a few people around will take early retirement if they can, and if allowed to it would mean more opportunities for people in their 30s and 40s, or at least will mean more likelihood of the younger people retaining their jobs.

Meanwhile Husband and I went out to supper to Huntington's Wine Bar in Brampton yesterday evening: he had arranged a babysitter (whom the kids loved) and for a couple of hours the sun shone into the wine bar while we enjoyed our dinner.  http://www.huntingtonsinformaldining.co.uk/  My stomach feels as if it's stretching again at the moment so I stuck to Salmon with a Herby Crust on a Creamy Chive sauce while Husband had one of Huntington's generous helpings of pasta: however I then couldn't resist warm Lemon Meringue Pie, one of my favourite desserts (so long as it is either warm or piping hot: cold it does nothing for me).  I'm not sure I 'ought' to have had meringue in case of undercooked eggs, but decided to risk it: after all most food is pretty well regulated nowadays.

Huntingtons is slightly reminiscent of a rural French bistro, but without the fussy decor, to my mind: but then slightly run down parts of rural England, like Brampton (and parts of Stroud in Gloucester) remind me of rural France anyway.  I think it's because the French don't tend to look after their historic buildings in rural areas in quite the way that people in the South East of England do: in the South East to live in a lovely sandstone building in rural Kent or Surrey is probably going to cost you quite a bit in mortgage payments.  Perhaps it's the same around Paris: perhaps the further removed you are from an affluent city the shabbier things can look.

Having said that, Brampton appears to be getting a bit of a face-lift recently and Husband and I were commenting on how even if one business closes down, two new ones will come to replace it.  The Howard Arms (mentioned in an earlier post) has been taken over and gone quite upmarket; Jacobites has moved to a bigger and more prominent position and is intending to open a bistro in the evenings; the Hole in the Wall has opened, a quite trendy coffee bar with a walkers' shop in front of it; and apparently there are plans for another cafe or restaurant.  Meanwhile Huntingtons has been going for 20 years and seems still to be going strong, judging by how busy it always is. 

What is nice is that we can just walk out of our house to go out for an enjoyable and good quality meal.