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LothedInArchivesSeptAndOctYou are on the archive wiki. The new wiki is here. 29 October 2004 - 14h03 Well, there is some joy in my life once more. I got my reprieve - not the way I expected exactly. Well, the way I expected, except Alex did the asking on Wenesday, and then cheerfully rang me up and told me the news. I have a very deep suspicion that him and Ian were drowning there respecitve sorrows in a vast quantity of red wine or beer since the lad sounded less than sober, but very happy that he could make my life better. Aren't friends like that wonderful? :-D Alex's sorrow is that Michelle has moved to South Hampton to take the position of a live-in Nanny. Ian's sorrow was possibly resolved (ugh) last night, since Sarah came home with him after the Franz Ferdinand concert he'd gone to. Ah, well, the return of a certain person, my slight chest-infection and another later-than-I-wanted-it-thanks-to-Perry's-amoeba-like-organisational-skills night aside, I'm in relatively good cheer. The MD, Mike, is away in Russia for just over a week starting today. We decided to have a mini halloween celebration in the office involving chocolate and a pumpkin that I got to carve! I also spent half this morning sitting with a witches hat on courtesy of Gen's cupboard of stuff. Tonight we're heading off for something calm with the newest addition to the ZA-roleplayers in London catalogue, Tony and Katey. I have realised with a certain sense of relief that this means I will never have to visit Durban in the summer again since most everyone I liked down there now lives in London. Saturday, however, has been reserved to head for Slimelight (which I have never managed to make it to yet, since every night I've wanted to go has been jinxed in some way!) They've got three floors open so it won't all be banging EBM and the goth scene will be by far the best one to join Halloween for! All I have to do now is find something to wear. Whoot! Oh, and on Saturday we switch over to Daylight savings (or is it the other way round?) Either way we get to add an extra 'thirteenth' hour to the night. Hmm... Halloween and the thirteenth hour! It's almost as good as christmas! 27 October 2004 - 12h28 I'm doing remarkably little work, it's a bit scary. Especially since I know Gen's quite busy. Anyway, house hunting. Yes, well. It sucks. In fact, I'm not certain I've done anything quite so depressing in my life. In London, you can accept is as a good average that it'll take you 50minutes to get anywhere. Some times you get lucky, and it's shorter than that. Frequently you don't, and it takes longer. Now I'm looking for a place to stay in the North or East. I'm living in the South. The maximum number of places I can look at in a night are two, and if I do that I'll spend about 3 hours traveling, 30 mins at each place and I'll get home at 10h30 if I'm lucky. Also, if I'm early I've got to find something to do with myself for 15mins or so - usually a coffee-shop is the answer, although the other day I spent time poking around in a chinese grocery shop. Getting there there are other trials to navigate. On my budget a number of the rooms are truely awful and the housemates uninspiring. Then I have to fake interest, since, well, I'm moderately desperate. If the places are good, and the house-mates nice, then I have to spend time 'shmoozing' trying to prove I'm a nice person and they want me to live there. So far all this effort has come to naught too. So, half my nights over the last few weeks have been spent roaming the streets of Northern London, late at night (and I'll remind you it's starting to get cold) feeling unwanted, with the sick feeling that technically I don't have a place to live come Monday. I actually couldn't face it last night. I cancelled the visits I had, since neither of the places sounded fab and went for drinks with a friend. Tonight though, the six month anniversary of my landing on these soggy shores (although I'll admit that the tarmac of Heathrow is probably not very yeilding) will be spent in a similar fashion. I'd love to be able to go home and cook a meal to celebrate, but I don't think Ian would be keen on that since it also would be his and Sarah's six month anniversary... Something which, if I want a reprieve on my moving out deadline, I'd be wise to avoid reminding him of. 26 October 2004 - 09h54 Wow, in a way so much has happened since my last post it's quite daunting to imagine how I'm going to recap it all. Firstly, I've started at my new job. So far it's been pleasent, although a little well, random. When you get right down to is I'm an assistant. That's what I'm doing - assisting. I do a wide variety of things to assist, answer phones, open post, book plane flights, photocopy stuff, order stationary, sort libraries, etc. but it's all assisting. Fortunately Gen is still here at the moment so the full brunt of the work-load hasn't fallen on me yet, and I'm waiting for that time with a rather mixed set of feelings. The plus side is there are plenty of perks - free fruit, cereal, bread, drinks, paid overtime (which can be taken as time off rather) and access to a flat in Barcelona... Not that I hold any delusions that I've been here long enough yet to be asking for a holiday to Barcelona. Unfortunately, however, the architects are very much in their own worlds and the person I connect with best, Gen, is the one headed off on maternity leave. But it's early days yet, and so far the idea of spending 6 months here doesn't fill me with terror. Oh, and they're buying me a swish new Mac - just because the director thinks they look nice. <grin> In other news, it was great to have Richard here, and in better news, umm, sorta, his life's gone to hell-in-a-handbasket so he's packing up and moving here in five weeks! Whoot! Now all I need is to import Nats and a few others and I'm all set! I'll save mentioning my house-hunting tribulation till tomorrow, except to say that I have never done anything more nightmarish, and having to deal with public transport makes it that much worse! And further to sy that Ian's GF, Sarah, packed up and left yesterday to spend some time with her dad and Ian's not certain she's coming back... So maybe I won't have to move in such a hurry (although I suspect that at the mo he still wants me gone in the hopes that it'll make the house more 'enticing' for her to return to.) 08 October 2004 - 13h07 Huh? How'd that happen? One minute it's giving me some crap about XML vs something else with an 'X' in it and telling me I can't edit my own page - and next minute I can edit? Explain that one? All I can say so far is that this new format is going to get some getting used to. Although I'm a big grandma when it comes to new software upgrades - I remember that the only time I'd upgrade operating systems on my old computer was when they didn't support a game I wanted to play, and heavens forbid someone made me change my mail client! The only upgrades I welcome on any level is in the graphics packages - I loooove new upgrades... well, if they've fixed the bugs. Anyway, not that I'm going to need to worry my head over graphics packages for a while since I am now the Receptionist / PA / Office manager / general dog's body for a small architectural practice. And since I'm covering someone's maternity leave I've pretty much locked myself into that one for the next 6 months. I'm kinda looking forward to having a stable income and job, especially seeing as I'm being evicted... 30 September 2004 - sometime in the morning... Anyone who has ever desired to get paid for doing pretty much nothing, should go into reception temping in London. However, before you think this is a golden opportunity to earn £8/hr just sitting on one’s but occasionally answering phones and being polite, please realise this is a very limited kind of ‘nothing’ I’m talking about. I can’t leave my assigned desk for more than a few seconds at a time. I’m not supposed to eat. It’s impossible to get enough liquid to actually drink unless I fancy unfiltered tap-water (not entirely recommended in London if it can be avoided). And if I could get enough liquid this would leave me with the additional problem of finding someone to cover me on bathroom breaks. I’m not supposed to read books or magazines, I’m not supposed to go on-line and, to top it all off, I’m not supposed to look like I’m doing nothing either. Hence why I’ve given up staring out the window (which does indeed have a relatively impressive view of greater London) and quietly paging through the Metro (since I reckon reading the paper looks like self-education rather than entertainment) and I have turned to the blank files of MS Word for some vague relief from this soul-consuming boredom. I wish I had some great idea for a novel or the like since this would be a really good opportunity to be able to write it – but as far as I’m aware anything ‘constructive’ you do on time being paid for, belongs to the person/organisation paying for that time. Technically this post is property of Rainbow Recruitment. This is not helped by the fact that the company I’m temping at for the rest of this week is run by the world’s most intolerant, inflexible, down-right bitchy 63 year old woman. I was apparently in a lot of trouble yesterday morning since I asked her to repeat her name when she called in to speak to her own secretary, and also used those terribly colloquial phrases of “Hi” and “Hang on a moment”. Although, but the afternoon I’d found my feet, was being rather more formal and she’d apparently started on the champagne, so I’d risen a few notches in her estimation. All I can say is that I’m glad I get to walk out of here on Friday and not have to look back. Of course, Friday has been made even better by the fact that it’s payday and Richard lands in London! 22 September 2004 - 14h41 Why does it have to be raining? Oh, yeah, England + Autumn = miserable weather... Actually, I think the Autumn bit of that equation is relatively superfluous. It's not helping my determination to go to the Job Center to apply for an appointment to apply for my NI number (gotta love bureacracy...) Anyway, I've just been on the BBC website, where I had been trying to work out if the weather for tomorrow is going to be better or worse than today's. A conclusion I have yet to come to, but I suspect there might be a little less rain, so I guess that counts as 'better'. But, I spotted something of far greater excitement!! Girls and Boys, I present to you the long lost ]]!Oh, I remember this one. It was on the old CLAWputer, possibly the one I donated. Not in as much flashy goodness tho, but it is exactly the same text, word for word (iirc). I just got a sudden flashback of how boringly repetitive it was, as you struggle to find exactly what to do next time so you don't die. Rather play ]]! You get to try kill Trogdor -- SynKronos I've got an original copy at home...on a disk none of my PCs? can read. -- AndieMoore so someone on the green and rainy isle is gonna be ogging and uploading the new radio show for us, right? right? - d@vid 16h47 SAST Yesireebob - All SIX Episodes of the new series, ripped off a hastily removed secret BBC website, in all their 5.1 surround glory -- GnomeThing 08/10/2004 Whoot! Joy and Happiness! Umm.. yeah, so about that getting out the house again... 21 September 2004 - 16h18 Well, today is it. In just over an hour I'll be walking out this building for, what I can only hope and assume is the final time. I will at last be quit of my four hour a day commute. In a way it's a pity since for a company that deals in fruit and vegetables, some of the people here are a lot nicer than I expected. Not that I have a hell of a lot of contact with them seeing as I'm perched up in the shiny marble front end of this building/warehouse. I'm also looking forward to seeing Danni (Peter Rendar's girlfriend, haven't seen her in a year and a half or so, but she's barrels of fun) tonight and not having to stress about what time I've got to get up tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to once again having zero income prospects. Oh, well, guess it's all a bit of a gamble, but it's one I'm glad to be taking. 19 September 2004 - 02h40 Arg, still working on Monday and Tuesday. I got invited to a party tonight out in Ealing which is about a half hour away from my office, and hence a bastard to get to, so hence I'm sitting at home, feeling sorry for myself with only Robert Smith and my housemate's girlfriends in the next room for company. The fact that I was out till 3am last night for Claire's birthday also has a lot to do with why I didn't feel like going out. Oh, and that Sarah, Ian's girlfriend can't do anything without making twice the noise a normal person would (I think it has something to do with the fact that she's half French). Yeah, well, she's managed to get a job at the Virgin CD shop in Wimbledon, and work started at 9am this morning - hence (obviousely) she made enough noise to wake me up a million times over. Niether I, nor my hangover, were swift to thank her though. I'm actually only making this entry since I'm loath to try to go to sleep, since with her and Michelle chatting in the next room I know I'm going to have to get up at least once to tell them to keep it down, please? I'm waiting for whatever drama it is with Ian that sent her flying down the stairs, slamming the lounge door loudly, and spouting forth vehemently to Michelle to have worked it's way out of her system. She's a lovely girl, really, but I just can't live with her. The only problem is that I wasn't really given an option on it, and there's not a lot I can do to change that until I have a stable income. Sigh. 08 September 2004 Thanks gods that I only have to work here for two weeks. The reason I need to stay a whole two weeks is so that I'll have enough money to pay the rent I was supposed to start paying yesterday. Not that anyone actually sat me down and officially told me how much I needed to pay and when... so I'm totally unconcerned by this apparent lapse of mine. If Ian can't actually say "Well, sorry, I know it's not your fault that Silvia has moved out suddenly, but as a result you now need to pay her rent." to my face - therefore allowing me to raise any concerns/complains/objections, then he can get his rent late. Arg. They have me piled up under this huge back-log of filing here. It's absurd! I hardly have enough time to do the 'current' filing and the other duties I need to get done (like the stationary order that's streadily getting later and later), let alone find time to work through the back-log. It's driving me nuts. I've been coming home feeling like a complete wreck. I get about two hours to shower, eat supper, pack lunch, watch TV, commune with housemates or whatever before I really need to head for bed. Needless to say I have been succeeding in going to bed in time as a result. Last night I was up to 11h30 ironing. I'd like to find time to phone Kait to ask her how her trip to Paris was. I also forgot my father's birthday. All-round-crappiness. Oh, well, it'll be over and I'll have covered my ass - well, in retro. I'll still need to get next months rent together... 03 September 2004 Well, I have a job. Don't congradulate me yet. It's not a great job. It's also a job that I have to spend 1h45 minutes in the morning getting to. I have to be there by 8:30. This means I'm waking up at 6am and catching my first train by the skin of my teeth. From that point I catch another 3 trains and two busses to get to work. I also get to read almost all The Metro in that time. This probably isn't a good thing. I'm just managing to get to work at 8:30 - actually I was five minutes late this morning, but I don't think many people noticed... Umm... well, actually being on reception means they probably did. The commute home takes even longer, since I can't time things quite as closely. Yesterday, I was out the house for 13.5 hours. I'm exhausted. If I want to keep the job I'm either going to have to move or buy a car, but really, I'm not keen on doing either since I'm not hellishly keen on the job. It's dull, cold, and boring filled with crappy filing. Sigh. Guess that's what I should have expected. Plus I reckon that when I go stirr-crazy they're going to be a little shocked (this place is staffed with normal people... furtive glances). So I reckon I'm going to bail. Sad and defeatist as that sounds. This isn't a position I'm willing to make sacrifices for, it's that simple. Plus now is the right time to look for work in this city and I'd rather keep my options open a little longer. On the plus side I've quite the Tram - my last shift is on Saturday. I am not going to go back come hell or high water, I'm sick of bar-work, and if I do decide to fall back on it again I'll aim to get work somewhere classier, with better clientele. Actually, I'll probably just get on with reception temping, since at least then I won't have to deal with being in a position that people expect me to care who's who, and about the power-plays and what coloured forms go in what bloody files!
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