Don't we just know this one girls!

Man flu, I need say nothing more! Be amused, be very amused ;o)

Talking of coffee...

.....how do you fancy a trip to Peter Jones in Sloane Square for a cup of what is considered to be the rarest coffee in the world......at £50 a cup and made from cat droppings?!

The perfect start....

....to a day.

The sun is shining, Vista is behaving (this won't last), I have a grande cappuccino and a chocolate twist parked in front of me,
kindly furnished by 'himself' who made a quick detour via Costa on an early morning foray into town, I have no appointments until this afternoon, there are birds feeding merrily from the new feeder I hung from the balcony only yesterday and I slept the whole night through last night! What more could I want?

Ok, perhaps I could do without the obligatory 'introductory visit' to my new doctors asthma nurse this afternoon, who doubtless will nag me narrow on the subject of smoking and make me blow into her infernal machine until I almost pass out but right now I don't care, the morning is a good one!

Pay it forward

I've managed to get myself tied up with a game on the blog of TexsMissusDemeanours; it sounded quite amusing so I decided I wanted to play too. The rules are set out below:

The first three people to join the challenge on my blog will receive a gift handmade by me. I will have 30 days to make and send your gift. You must then do a post on your blog inviting 3 people to join your Pay It Forward and receive a handmade gift from you. Sounds easy enough right. The first three people who leave a comment saying they want to join will receive something made by me.

The difficult bit of course is what does one make for the responders but I think I have a cunning plan...... I'm going to interpret the phrase 'handmade by me' slightly differently and offer for my 'prizes' a personalised header banner or button (your call) for your blog.

Ok, don't all rush at once! ;o)

A strange combination?

I have a days temping next week, ok this is not going to make me rich I accept but it's kind of odd and fascinating all at once.

I don't have a great deal of information yet, I get my 'pep talk' tomorrow but what I do know is this; It's some kind of marketing for a design (web included) company and it's all happening at an animal rescue sanctuary! How cool might that be?!...cats, dogs, design, all in one spot, seems a slightly strange combination but very 'me' ;o)

I'm quite looking forward to this one....

Another four things.....

I've been tagged by Jennytc so here goes with my offering:

4 movies I'd watch again:
I don't really like to watch a film twice but if I was going too then: Seven, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Last of the Mohicans, The Long way Round.

4 places I've lived:
Buckinghamshire, Manchester, Scotland, Cambridgeshire.

4 TV shows I watch:
A year in Tibet, Ashes to Ashes, The News, Holby City.

4 people I email:
My parents, Lisa, Fletch, John.

4 things I eat:
Chocolate, pizza, olives, pasta.

4 places I'd rather be:
The Swiss Alps, Andalucia, on Eloise, at work!

Join in if you want to but I'm not gonna 'nominate'.

Getting it very wrong!

Hopeless! ;o)

(Click to enlarge)

A sign of the times.....

....scare-mongering or just plain old fashioned corporate greed? There's nothing like giving our adolescent thugs some positive input is there?

I thought I had seen it all until I read this!

Don't test me....the result

My endeavours paid off, though as life has a habit of being the outcome wasn't as straightforward as one might have liked.

The phone rang as promised and I was offered a position, they liked me, they were impressed but as often seems to be the way with employers recently, they had decided to change the goal posts and instead of recruiting a full time position they now were offering two part time jobs....I think they call that hedging your bets don't they?

So, what to do? After a quick discussion with 'himself' it was agreed I wasn't going to play the game, I didn't go through all of that for 20 hours a week with no commitment from the company's side, I applied for a full time post and that's what I want. I have spent too many years in an industry that places too little value on it's staff and the very fact that this company felt it appropriate to take up so much time of twelve individuals in putting them through such a rigorous selection process, only to renege on it's original offer doesn't bode well for it's attitude to it's people. I got back to them and said 'full time or no time', they replied with a slight adjustment in the 'terms' but that only made the offer worse from my point of view.....so I declined!

This is not a bad thing. If nothing else the whole experience has made me more confident, if I can get through that to the end then I can get through however many other selection processes I need to until find a job that suits me and for the first time in my life I feel a degree of empowerment (sorry I hate that psychobabble phrase but I can't think of a better one) and confidence and I am determined that I'm not going to spend the rest of my working life accepting any old crap a poor quality employer throws my way.

I appreciate that I am very fortunate to be in the position of having the luxury of choice. Previously I have always had to accept anything I was offered because I needed to keep a roof over my head but as I do have that luxury for now, I intend to make the most of it and do something positive with it.

Their loss, next please.

....and if working in an office is anything like this maybe I had a lucky escape! ;o)

glumbert - Bad Day at the Office

Don't test me...part two

Heavens above! It's probably a good thing that I wasn't completely aware of what I was walking into at yesterday's 'interview' because had I done so, I would likely have seriously considered a no-show!

It was hard to imagine that the selection process we endured was for a 'run of the mill' post, I have only ever been put through my paces like that once before and that was for a much more demanding, and much better remunerated job.

This process took almost five hours, it began with twelve candidates who were gradually whittled away down to three as we went through the stages, which included a math test, a data input speed test, various forms of team building/bonding carrying on's, not one but two presentations from each of us and finally an hour long interview.

My first reaction on arrival and learning exactly what was involved was to bolt but of course I didn't, instead I told myself it didn't matter, treat it like a game and get on with it....and that's what I did. The most dreaded bit of the whole palaver for me was always going to be the presentation, my given subject was to plead the case, as chairman, of a specific organisation for lottery commission funding. I absolutely hate presentations, paricularly with only a few minutes to prepare but a swift moment of self-talk on the basis that I don't normally have any problem 'stating my case' worked. I wrote down a few bullet points and when my name was called I got up and just went for it...big time. Hell, if you're gonna make a fool of yourself then you might as well do it properly! But amazingly it worked, I actually sounded like I knew what I was doing....and though I shouldn't say so myself I was reasonably and very unexpectedly impressive.

Seemingly the assesment team thought so too because I made it to the final three. We were running late by then, it was past 5 o'clock, I was feeling worn out from too much thinking and just wanted to go home but I still had over an hours interview to get through coherrently.

A glass of water and a sneaky bite of the emergency chocolate supply always stashed in my handbag did the trick, I managed a good interview and was finally posted out the door with a promise to let me know the outcome today.

Strangely I'm not too concerned with the outcome, I was pleased to have got through as far as I did and despite myself I found the challenge almost fun, if nothing else it has boosted my waning confidence some. If I don't get this one then there will be another and if I can get though yesterday as far as I did then the next one won't faze me quite the same!

Now all I have to do is wait for the phone to ring........

Don't test me!

Today I have an 'assessment' for a job I have applied for, I hate them, whatever happened to the good old fashioned interview?

I can perform pretty well at an interview, hell, anyone who knows me personally will tell you I can talk the hind legs off a donkey usually, but assessments, exams, tests of any description are just not my forte. I can employ every positive thinking and relaxation technique in the book but despite all that within five minutes I am usually reduced to a hot, sweaty, gibbering fool who has lost command of any intellect or abilities I ever had! Outwardly I probably appear reasonably 'normal' but inwardly the plot is lost and my mind just won't continue to function....ugh tests!

This particular 'delight' includes data input speed, math and ultimately the dreaded role play, oh how I detest role play, and all for a job that is poorly paid and that doesn't appeal to me but in my current status of unemployed and broke, what I want to do and what someone might possibly employ me to do, are two very different issues. 'Want' is not a privilege I can afford right now.

This particular job is a customer service role, customer service is my strong point, twenty years or so at the sharp end, being verbally and on occasion physically attacked and never did I lose the painted smile or the ability to deal with the situation and resolve it appropriately....but put me in front of a tester and for me it's a whole different ball game.

Hey ho....into the lions mouth once more, perhaps this time I won't degenerate into a lump of idiocy.

Pigs might fly....and as an indication of my nervous idiocy, I just put a spoonful of ground coffee into a bloody mug, instead of the cafetiere.

I rest my case!

Pill popping

After almost four weeks with only two nights decent sleep I did something that goes against all my principles and popped a pill last night!

Sleepers I won't entertain but I discovered long since that antihistamine, Piriton specifically, works wonderfully for me in it's ability to effectively 'knock me hard over the head' in a matter of minutes. It's not good I know to take meds. for a reason other than that indicated but as I used to have it legitimately for eczema I figured it wasn't too much of a bad thing....and after all they are available over the counter.

So, last night I popped one and success....I slept like the dead, all night, straight through, no tossing and turning, no early hours blogging, just lovely, lovely sleep.

I've got a head full of cotton wool of course this morning but as they say you 'get owt for nowt' and it was well worth the cheat! :o)

Penguins

You have to see THIS.

The trail for a new B.B.C series. Amazing!

Spam, a birthday not to celebrate

'VnIAGRnA'

Few of us have opened our mailboxes each day without being greeted with the sight of the bastardised word above, or something similar, yet another offer of a penis enlargement, the best 'no strings hot sex' we are ever going to experience or a life changing chance to purchase the aforementioned blue pill or other pharmaceutical wonder, at a knock down price!

Spam...the bane of the internet 'celebrates' it's birthday today, it's fifteen years since the phrase was first coined and thirty years since the first spam message went off on it's merry way into cyberspace. It still accounts for 99% of all email messages sent, it still slows down the proceedings the internet is supposed to be used for and the guys on the wrong end of it still manage to find ways to circumnavigate attempts to stop it!

What amazes me is that presumably, if it remains so prevalent it must still be economically viable for those that use it as a medium for advertising. The fact that they do use it doesn't surprise me one iota, where there is money to be extorted there is always someone ready step in. What does confound me though is that the very fact that it is viable must mean that recipients of this scourge must continue reading and responding to it in numbers vast enough for that to be the case!

It's a little like prostitution in that no one ever admits to availing themselves of the service but by definition they must....and in considerable numbers!