The Good Interview.

Something shocking happened this morning, you're going to have to get a glass of something and find a supportive chair to sit in before you read further...

...I had a good interview.

There, told you it was shocking.

This mornings interview had been arranged prior to Christmas; I feared I might allow my nerves and general attachment to worry, spoil the festive season but I managed to have a very good Christmas. Everything went happily along Christmas day, the cooking turned out fine, the roast pots came out crispy and the meat was cooked to a 't'. I got some nice pressies, yes, Christmas day was perfect so much so the thought of the oncoming interview did not even cross my mind. Boxing day was also clear of any worry despite being at my parents that day, (what a worry they can be), so this Christmas was the best in ages. Even the universal remote that I had brought, (see previous post about my TV not working), miraculously decided to work.

So, today arrives. I had done the usually, read about the company, made a mental note of the interesting bits on their, 'About Us' page on their website; generally made sure I knew what they did. I was calm, uncommonly so, not a hint of stress - it helped that I already felt a little relaxed towards the person that was to interview me, (we had already exchanged several e-mails and had arrived at first name terms and, almost, chatty notes), which seems to have helped. I knew where the place was, as its near where my guy works, so had no fears about getting there, no panic about getting lost and being late no, I knew where I had to go and how to get there.

I arrived in time, meet with a friendly welcome and was given a very interesting tour around the place. I asked loads of questions, was chatty, (not like me), and relaxed, considering the situation. Sitting down, we had a nice chat, further questions, the usual things and I sat there thinking that for the first time in ages I might just be 'clicking' with someone. No sweaty hands and no tensed up muscles, a small miracle!

The interview ended well and I left the place feeling close to bursting in to happy tears. Was it possible I could do this interview thing, was it possible that I didn't have to worry myself so much that I gave myself chest pains, was there hope?

Anyway, I should hear the outcome early nest week. I am not banking on anything despite the fact I felt the interview went well, after all, one persons, 'going well' is another persons, 'fuck up'! I'll shall just allow myself to bask in the lovely relief of a interview that feels as if it's gone well, a rare thing...(happy sigh).


You and me both Charlie, me old mate!

Chrimbo TV.

Thank fuck I didn't miss these: -

Wallace and Gromit - A Matter of Loaf and Death.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00g8hbw/Wallace_and_Gromit_A_Matter_of_Loaf_and_Death/


Blackadder Rides Again
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00gbjgm/Blackadder_Rides_Again/

and, off course,
Doctor Who - The Next Doctor
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00gd1mr/Doctor_Who_Series_4_The_Next_Doctor/

You can, usually rely upon Aunty Beeb to do the 'job' at Chrimbo time!

That's Not All Folks!

I had planned that yesterdays blog would be it, until the yuletide had finished with us. The thing is yesterday, I was happy.

A big thing is made about being happy but, in my experience, if you start to go around with a grin on your face, for genuine happiness to show itself in, lets say, singing Christmas songs to yourself and being all chirpy welllll...you could be making a mistake. I certainly was.

Whenever I am actually happy, you know, one of those rare brilliant days where things just work out, where nothing goes wrong and you just feel well, happy then shite is guaranteed to be around the corner.

As the song goes, 'my telly's gone bung!'.

Not totally 'bung', actually the remote is refusing to work despite new batteries and the universal remote, (I paid out on this morning), ain't helping. Fortunately there is a panel on the TV itself which I can use but you know, it's the principle of the thing plus the fact the first repair bill of 2009 has booked itself.

Totally frecked off - oh well, I'll still be able to watch the Chrimbo TV and, on the brighter side, my arse won't have a chance to glue itself to the sofa which is a good thing as I intend to eat a lot of mince pies!

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:wpfixc8aldje

When A Child Is Born.

I am not a religious person - if I was to admit to any believe, any faith, than it would be the believe in logic and the faith in common sense.

So, the whole Jesus thing...lets try applying some logic and sense to this. Firstly, we have to take the story of Jesus down to bare bones that is, strip away the religious aspects and view it as a simple tale about a person.
There is no reason why a carpenter called Joseph and his wife Mary could not have a child equally, no reason why that child couldn't be a boy who they named Jesus. That makes sense it's completely believable. Now, here come a couple of problems firstly the fact Mary was supposed to be a virgin. That's a big-un, I mean biological that is impossible, a virgin can not give birth, (21st century medicine may argue that), the whole pregnant thing requires nay, DEMANDS male participation and if that wasn't important enough a woman giving birth er, unbroken, (lacking a more medical phrase), would hurt...somewhat.

Secondly - God. This is a HUGE issue if you don't believe in him, (I use 'him' to simplify things), because he has a big part in this as Jesus is in fact, supposed to be his biological son, flesh of his flesh, blood of his blood and all that. That means Joseph is not, actually, the father of Jesus more like a stand in as God can't really be 'on-hand'. This is all fine if you are a believer and good for you if you are because that is a lot to believe in. Unfortunately neither of these 'problems' have any sense or logic to them which, after all, is the whole point of faith. Having faith means you can get over this lack of sense and logic, you bypass all that because your faith means you can believe that Jesus could be born of a virgin mother and, that God is his true father.

If I go back to the bare bones, if I view Jesus as the son of a carpenter and his wife than I can believe. This is good because than I can harbour the notion that this child grew up, that he went on to do good things maybe not miracles, (what would have qualified as a miracle in those times I wonder?), that he tried to encourage people to be better. There's sense in that, it's possible because people do, sometimes, do good things, people do try to help others be better. Yes, I can do that, I can believe that a carpenters son tried to make things better, it's entirely logically and I can sign up for that!

So, for those of you humbugging the whole Jesus notion, just try it my way - take out the whole religious point of view and try and see him as a man who tried to make things better.

Happy Christmas and here's hoping for a better New Year for us all.

Job Centres Are The Portals To Hell.

Every two weeks I have to make the trip down to my local job centre to speak to a job centre person. It's usually the same person who sits behind a desk looking smug, plainly knowing that their job is save due to the shit the rest of us are in - if I'm lucky they have remembered my name, generally my luck is out.

Walking in to the Job Centre is depressing enough but what is worse, is when you have to go upstairs - yes upstairs, where those out of work for more than six months are sent, those who are no longer allowed job seekers allowance and aren't entitled to a penny if their other half is in gainful employment. The doomed...and aren't we made to feel it.

The uncaring person behind the desk, views you with a sigh, clearly you are failing because you should have taken that shite job cleaning in that factory, never mind that you have over eighteen years experience in your profession and you don't think working a six hour week at below minimum wage, is worth doing. No, you should be grateful that there are jobs out there, the fact they are either, jobs you have no experience at or, the qualifications for is beside the point, (I should have studied to be a web designer, I missed out there!), or that it's some shitty job that you know you'll walk out of before an hour is up because you value your sanity too much. You sign the piece of paper they hand you, to prove you can get your arse to the dreaded place and leave, a cloud of uselessness raining down on your sorry head.

Job Centres fucking, bloody, portals to Hell!


YOU should see how it feels Gordon fucking Brown!

Blue Christmas.

I am depressed.

Completely.

Frecking doomed.

Wondering why the freck I'm bothering...


The unemployment figures are not good - they are heading to the two million point with the loud accomplishment of a raspberry being blown. The spittle is landing on many heads leaving a horrible, sticky, residue in it's wake. What makes it worse is that the affected heads, generally, belong to the innocent and wretched...namely me - okay, maybe not 'innocent' in my case but certainly wretched.

I made another visit to the gov.uk website - it isn't something I like doing but yesterdays news mentioned something about further training for the likes of me so, I braved another look. I sat there, reading the guff, and felt my spirits sink to my feet - I was looking for some straight forward help but all I got was a feeling akin to trying to swim through syrup. The reason I am unemployed is not my fault but I feel that it is, thanks to the stigma attached to being out of work and, the lack of any actual care from those who are supposed to help you.

It is clear that the situation is going to get worse - they are talking about further big name employers facing trouble in the new year - so, are we all, (the jobless), just going to be labelled with the negative stigma and left to rot? It seems so so, those of you who do have a job especially a decent job, count yourself lucky because you are become one of the fortunate.


You don't know the half of it Elvis, me old mucker!

It's Begining To Look A Lot Like Christmas.

There we were, (my other half and me), putting up the Christmas decorations last Saturday afternoon. He had braved the loft, (climbing up the steps in his Mr Grumpy slippers), and found the aged old boxes containing the equally, aged old decorations. For years we have been saying that 'next Christmas' we would get new decorations, like Hell - there was always something that happened to make money short so that we could not afford them. This year, me being made redundant was the latest in, 'something that happened' so, there we were, him handing the boxes down to me, both of us muttering about the same old tatty decorations.

I tackled decorating the dinning room while he, faced the untangling of the lights. One set was frecked so we were down to the one box of lights - could be worse. Picking out the best of the hanging decorations and the tinsel I managed to make the dinning room look half decent. With some further careful choices the front room became Christmas-fied. Even my skull, (who lives on top of a CD rack), entered into the spirit with a Santa hat on his head.

We viewed our work and came to the conclusion that it was a job well done but that we REALLY SHOULD get some new decorations next year...will that pig ever fly?!

With that in mind lets drive Paul O'Grady to insanity...

Christmas Music.

No, I won't apologise for the Christmas player, (points to the right hand side of the blog). Flip forward to find a song that doesn't drive you nuts and get into the sodding spirit of the occasion!

Oh Santa, A Ac Adaptor Would Just Be Lovely...

The last few days have not been good - it started when, as I plugged the power lead into my laptops ac adaptor, a buzzing, spark like sound was uttered forth. Sighing loudly I sunk back in my chair and grumbled at my boyfriend - between the two of us we decided that it was the power lead and not, the ac adaptor that was the problem although, I did have doubts - with my luck it was a miracle it wasn't, (censored so not to tempt fact), because that would have meant I would have to hurt someone.

I searched eBay and found myself a cheap, clover leaf power lead and within a few days, it was in my hand; as I plugged it in I allowed myself to smile because it was going to be okay now.
(laughs) I was wrong.
It turned out that it was, after all, the sodding ac adaptor. Now, it is fortunate that I have some computer knowledge and, minor technical ability. I knew that I didn't have to brave Acer customer service to find the correct adaptor; I understood the information on my current adaptor, there was hope that a fortune wouldn't have to be spent to get my hands on a new one.

This time eBay could not help me no, my new knight in shinning armour was Amazon. Universal ac adaptors my friends are a Grud send yes, all you need is the right voltage and the right pin connection to your laptop and away you go!!

Which is why I can right this blog ON my laptop powered by a lovely Trust universal ac adaptor which has the brightest freaking blue, power light you can imagine, really, it's putting my Chrimbo lights to shame!



Here's the ever worthy Linus...

Paid Surveys, Home Working and All That Jazz!!

Being unemployed means time is on your hands; unfortunately money isn't so, you try and 'employ your time', (almost a pun there), to make some dosh.

The internet.

Now, the internet is a wondrous creation, it goes from informing you who the wives of Henry VIII were, (go on, try and name them), to worrying things like well...hmmm... Anyhoo, it can also make a person money. The thing is, a person must be wary of trying to make money online - undoubtedly there are ways to make some dosh but making some legal and painless dosh is very hard. Scams people, are left, right and sodding everywhere, they can catch out even the sensible so not believing all you read is a very wise path to take.

I have lost count of the paid survey sites that I have come across, frecking millions of the bastards but, the numbers of genuine ones are few and far between. Type in, 'paid surveys', and Google will oblige with a list as long as your Gramps long johns. In the months I have been out of work I haven't come across one that I could honestly, recommend. What they all have in common is the request for money; from peanuts to serious money, they all want some degree of payment. You can go to forums, wade through reviews but it seems that no-one is willing to tell you the websites to join that will, in fact pay REAL money for you spending 2 - 30 minutes answering mind-numbingly boring questions without requiring you to pay for it.

Freelance workers.

There are sites that provide work for freelance work - when I say freelance it can be anything from data entry to constructing websites. Plainly, the key to this is that you, yes YOU are able to do this type of work. Are you able to ghost write, to put together a trial website can you do data entry? I found out that my answer to these questions, was, 'un-fucking likely', which is a depressive thing to admit to certainly, not to the skill level that would get me work.
Like paid survey sites, there are freelance worker sites that ask for your dwindling dosh so, once again, be wise.

There are other websites that, over a trial period of something like 7-14 days, will allow you to try their service for free and then, after that they will charge you monthly.

My FREE advise.

You should NEVER pay to work. Do not part with your cash whatever you read in a forum, whatever review you study.

Don't try these trial periods out, (warning, Freelance Home Writers are a rip off), because even if you do cancel your account before the trial period ends, some will still take your cash.

Once again, DO NOT PART WITH YOUR MONEY NO MATTER WHAT. The idea is to make money not to spend it.

Lunch Will Be Late!

I spend my mornings job searching; sat there, in front of a computer screen, scanning through various job websites looking for something that pays decently and won't send me to a loony bin.

I found something this morning, a job with a county council. I downloaded the application form along with the job specification details, went to open them and all I got was jumbled code...I sighed knowing that there shouldn't be a problem my end, Microsoft word is happily installed on my system so why the freck this downloaded document was being an arse...weeeellll... I e-mailed the council and, to their credit, got a speedy reply with a new download which worked - was I going to be lucky?....

No.

I spent the next few hours trying to fill the thing in. At one point I saved it because I had to read the blooming person specification details which, when printed off, became a pile of paper. I sat there, reading the bollocks, then went back to the saved file which opened as...yes, a pile of sodding code. I went back to the e-mail to reload the correct download and started again.

I knew lunch was approaching I could tell by the near-lunch-time activity noises coming from my other 'arf and my dog. Pressure seemed to be looming to get this damn application form finished before lunch because, if I left it now, I wouldn't give a fuck later on so...

I concentrated, filled in the straight forward stuff then hit the usual hurdle of, 'Please give details of how you meet the job requirements along with examples of...' blah, blah, blah and all that. I felt like crying, in fact, I did. I hate this type of question it's just bloody awful. Why you can't just send your sodding CV off which lists your work experience and details and let THEM decide if you have the relative requirements, I don't frecking know?! Anyway, I persisted - by this time it is well past normal lunch time, getting on to 1.30pm, and I was beginning to fancy that I could hear the stomach growls of the males in my life.

I finally got to the point when you date and sign, and was about to lean back in my chair with a relieved sigh, when I realised that there was more...ethnic and disability details and stuff...ahh!

By the time I e-mailed the sodding thing off it was hitting 2pm - over two hours to complete the bloody thing. I wouldn't mind so much if I actually got an interview but, the chances of that are sod all if past experience rings true!

On that note I received another, 'Dear John', in the post today. Plainly I am no use to anyone!