Busy doing nothing..

Well not quite. In fact, whilst I'd be hard pressed to say exactly what it is I've been doing, I've definitely been busy.
I can't remember if I said, but all of my registration stuff turned up last weekend. Well half of it did - despite copious emails, and changing my address etc, some of it had gone to Bristol and I had to chase after this to be able to get hold of the log in details to access the online part of the registration. This seemed to be relatively straight forward - you log in, change your log in details, and then complete the bits of the registration information that need it. You also get bits like when to turn up for registration, who's your Advisor of Studies etc. I found that I'd been listed as being a full time student, whereas I'm technically supposed to be part time, so I had to send emails about that - they got that sorted out very quickly. I think I know who the Convener is for the MLitt, and I certainly know who's Co-ordinating it, so I've got an appointment to go and see her not too far off now, so I'm kind of hoping that when I've done this I'll be a lot more organised.

I went to meetings about the job - this research that's being done that I'm working on. I've been sending out letters to my interviewees, still haven't managed to catch any of them at home yet to actually interview, but I'm going to set too with a vengeance tomorrow and they will not escape my net! Near disaster set in when my phone gave up the ghost, but I've taken the opportunity to enhance my phone making capabilities and upgrade - I now have a bluetooth headset! This will make the interviewing easier, since I can now sit there and smoothly write everything down. But a fine time for the phone to pack up. Well ok, it didn't 'pack up'. I dropped it and no more dialling tone could be heard. That's the problem with cordless, slips out of the fingers and there's no cord to make a desperate grab for.
I've been loading stuff into the Ebay shop which is up and running - check it out, there's a link to the left of this post. Rather more excitingly, I've been browsing in the categories that I list in, and I have to say that they really aren't full of pieces that offer me a great deal of competition. This has thrown me into a bit of a conundrum, well sort of. Summer never has been Ebay hot time, lots of people are away, and lots of people don't want to buy stuff, so its sort of quiet time. But this seems to be unnaturally so - is it because people have actually stopped listing really good bits and pieces, have people stopped buying completely and utterly - it's a mystery. I certainly haven't sold anything yet, but it takes a while for listed items to work there way up to a point where casual browsers are going to see them. And in my experience, when you stop selling for a while, it's a bit like going back to the very beginning and having to start all over again. Still we'll see.

It's been raining pretty much non-stop. I'm beginning to think that the ark project is a goer! Right now it's not, and it's been dry for most of the day, but this is about the first non-raining day for the last three at least, and there are a lot of dark clouds out there, so I figure it's not long before its back. What else have I been up to? John came round for lunch - his other half is over in Edinburgh. I did pork chops with roast potato's and onions, and dug a bag of red cabbage out of the deep freeze. I admit it wasn't a good red cabbage, I had to use white sugar rather than dark brown, and you could tell the difference. Way too sweet, and sweet in a light way that wasn't too brilliant. I've got some dark brown sugar now, so I may pick up another red cabbage when I go shopping next.

So this has been the highlights of the week - dull eh? Well we can't live a life that's packed with interviews and interesting excursions all the time. Catch up with me next week and maybe it'll be a bit more vibrant!

I can't think of a title for this..

It's been a good week, this week, even if I have had a bit of a cold. Not surprising really considering it's done nothing but rain since I got here, and I then discovered I've not really the amount of shoe-age that I should have to withstand this amount of rain. This called for shoe shopping, one of my least favourite activities - I know, I know, as a woman it's letting the side down to complain about it, but if you had feet like mine, you'd hate it too.
Firstly my feet are quite small - I can get into a size 5 at a push, but 5.5, to 6 for comfort lengthwise, the width, well I'm quite large, and the old feet have spread a bit to provide me with a firm plant. The real problem is one I inherited from Dad, high insteps. Hugely high insteps since I did ballet as a kid and ever since have been curling my feet into perfect points. It's led to the development of a pair of extraordinary insteps, even if my feet have remained flexible and bunion-less during my adult life! Finding a shoe that fits this remarkable foot has become the bane of my life - I've been everywhere, I've bought on-line, I've been to the Shoe Tailor and yes, they make shoes that fit, shoes I even like, and shoes I think are a reasonable price, but are they good quality shoes? They are not. The only pair I bought were fine to start out with by by the time the uppers became really comfortable to wear, the soles had collapsed and you could see they were constructed on a sort of honeycomb cell construction - once the sole under the foot had gone, it then tried to force the sole of my foot into a network of about six square pieces! Nothing to be done with that except throw them away, and think, well I won't bother with them again. I mean you are talking £40 odd quid a pair.
That's the other thing about shoes that I really dislike, it's the cost of them. Yes, I accept you have to pay for a decent pair of shoes, but I remember paying £20 quid back in the seventies and so on, and I really really resent having to pay over say £35 for a pair. But this is what being old is all about really, it's moaning about the cost of things and how it's changed over the years.

Yes well, old is what I am now - birthday this week too. I was very chuffed with the cards and so on that I got from the family and friends. I even got a card signed by all of the people I used to work with back in Bristol, which really did chuff me no end. It's funny how you can work with people for years, really think that you're quite good friends with them and then you move on to another job and you never hear from these people again. Over the years this has happened to me, although I have to say I also had greetings from women I worked with over twenty years ago way back in the dawn of time at the Theatre in Bath. So I count myself very lucky that over the years I've worked with some great people, and I was very touched by firstly the card that turned up from Bristol, and then the texts I had from Sonia & Vanessa in Bath. Well, Brittany actually, because that's where one of them came from!
In the evening I went out for a meal, with some local friends. We went to a bistro type place on Duke Street called Tibo's, very nice it was too, particularly the starter - whisky cured salmon, fabulous. I can't tell you how pretty this was on the plate, and how delicious it was to eat! I followed this with a lamb tagine, but I have to admit that here I came a cropper with an excess of aubergine, which is not my fave veg. But the lamb was wonderful, melt in the mouth type lamb. A nice touch was that the menu listed their fish and meat suppliers, all local, which I thought was a really good idea. All restaurants should do that.
Anyhow to bring us back full circle, I did get new shoes, three pairs in fact. Well I'm a big believer that when you find some that fit, buy in bulk!

Another strange experience...!

I'm not at all sure what or how to describe my day! I found a job that I thought I could apply for, by email, on one of the university's job sites and sent off an application - back came an email inviting me to an interview, so along I went today. I knew from the description it was some sort of interviewing, which it is, for a study being conduction by a professor from the University of Sheffield. I'm not sure exactly how much I can tell you about it really, because I have no idea how confidential it is, so I think for the sake of safety we'll just say it's interviewing people about their financial situations. The prof was extremely nice, and certainly the work would be interesting. But the downside of this is that yep, it's paid - but at present you couldn't say exactly how many hour it would take to do. I have a list of people I have to contact, and the questionnaire, but I have to shell out my own money to call these people, initially by letter is best we think, then by phone. The interview is conducted over the phone if possible, but there's a possibility for those we can't contact by phone that we may have to go visit some - in pairs I hasten to add. We keep a list of everything that we do, and how much time we spend on this, and then at the end of August, hand all of this to the professor, and we get paid at the end of September. And there lies the rub - I'm going to have phone bills come in between then and now. Still I'm going to give it a go - it is interesting, and we'll see what happens.

Adventures in Greenock.

Yes, I'm jobless again. Disaster! Managed the training ok, no problem, because basically the hours of the training were odd - one day I started at 3, another day started at 5 - I thought, ha, to judge by the bus timetables, I'd be able to get too and from the city centre where the work bus departed for the standard shifts without any problem. Fat chance. Yesterday was the first day that I actually had to put this in to practise - and no one had mentioned that this bus took about one and three quarter hours to get to Greenock in the first place. It's only 20 odd miles away, and if you went there directly, you could do it in about an hour, perhaps less if there's no work going on on the motorway. But of course, there never is a time without some kind of work going on on a motorway, nor without an accident , or torrential rain to slow everything down, so it never does take the time that it's supposed to.

Anyhow yesterday, I needed to be in George Square for twenty to seven. To manage this, I'd looked at the bus timetable and found there were two buses - one at 5.48, and the next at 6.19. Its not a long journey, and I figured that the 6.19 would get me there in plenty of time, particularly as it was that early and there's not much traffic around at that time. So I got up at 5.30, which was pretty earth shattering - I'll get into that later! - and eventually staggered off to the bus stop, and made it there for about ten past 6. That seems to me to be early enough to catch a bus that's shot through because there's no one getting on (there's a nasty tendency of bus drivers to speed up along their routes because of this!), and having got there, I settled in to wait. And wait, and yes, bloody wait. 6.19 came and went as a distant memory, and by 25 past, I was getting frightened. I had 15, possibly 20 minutes to make it into town, assuming the work bus hung around for 10 minutes or so for people to turn up. I can't speak for others, but I get a real fear when things don't run according to my plans, it's not that I'm inflexible, but I actually get panicky when things start to come apart. Once something has actually come apart at the seams I can calm down, and pick up the pieces etc, but whilst it's in the process of happening, I get this old feeling of cold terror, of people rushing around and saying "Where is she? I Knew this would happen, she's unreliable, she's useless" and all that kind of thing. Rationally I know it's not likely to happen, but nevertheless, that's the feeling that I get when it's all going pear shaped. So when I saw a taxi, I grabbed it, and needless to say I was there on time to get on the work bus. But I was feeling uneasy, and thinking to myself, just how often is this going to happen, and given that when I arrive back from a late shift at midnight plus I have no option to be taking a taxi, just how many days am I going to have to take one, and shell out vast sums of money to get from a relatively simple A to B. There's not a lot of point in working if 3/4 of the money you earn goes on getting to the job.

On top of this are the treks around Glasgow. Yes it's nice, it's very interesting, to see places I haven't seen before - for example on one day we went past Bellahouston Park, which was very interesting. There's a big athletics club there, and something I simply have to go and investigate properly, the "Palace of Art". I've never seen an art gallery set in a park before, and I'm curious about it. On a couple of occasions we made it as far as the Rangers Stadium - I've been there before, but there's been a lot of redevelopment in the area, and it's changed a lot. In fact I'm sure that at one point a decade or so ago, I went to look at a flat in the area. But whilst I love the beautiful game, I've never been too sure of living next door to one of the biggest stadiums in the country. The key point here though is that whilst it's interesting to see these places, it's not something I want to do on a daily basis, adding quarter hours to my trips to and from work. For every one of these pick up points, it means coming off the motorway, and this adds just so much time to the journey that at the end of the day, an eight hour working day has turned into a twelve and a half hour working day. I've worked odd and long hours for a long time now, but I'm getting on, and I'm just not as up to it as I used to be, even ten years ago. It's a crying shame, because I met some great people, really nice, and the work was brilliant. I could do it blindfolded - well perhaps not quite, but I could do it backwards, and if it had only been based in Glasgow, or they had been more flexible. I asked them if they were prepared to let me do it part time, but no dice, I asked if there was any other way I could get there. There's a train, but it takes about as long as the bus, and you're then a ways away from the centre where we were working.

So in the end, I decided I just couldn't do this. I was absolutely exhausted, not by the work, but by the endless travelling. I did take some great photo's along the journey - check them out, Scottish landscape is fabulous, but I'm back to square one jobwise. Oh hell.

Not exactly an interview...

Well not really. Oh, let's go back and start from the very beginning - I was up in plenty of time, and as I'd done all of the necessary ironing (white shirt, black skirt) the night before I was all ready to go - but wouldn't you know, two minutes out of the house, and the rain pours down! I got to the bus stop, and had to wait what seemed an age for the bus, to the extent that when I made it into town I grabbed a taxi for what's a relatively easy stroll (0k, it's uphill all the way!) to Blytheswood Square. Needless to say that got me there so early, I had to go for a walk about the square so as not to be indecently early.
Anyhow I found the place easily, took a seat in the waiting area, but rather astonishingly, it wasn't any sort of one to one interview thing, but a group of perhaps 12 of us taken off to fill out forms - Just the standard sort of form, but additionally a confidentiality agreement, which makes me wonder if I'm even breaking it by blogging this! But since I haven't said exactly or indeed, at all, what this job is, I guess not. Having filled out the forms, they will call us back tomorrow once they've gathered in the references etc, and book us onto the training course. If I get in, I think I'm likely to be doing the course in the evening - there are two standard shift patterns, 8 - 4, and 4 - 11. Compared to what hours I was working I don't see this as being any sort of a problem. Although it'll be interesting coming home at midnight in the middle of Glasgow! I don't know where the free bus picks up/deposits us as yet, and I'm hoping it's not in Blytheswood, which is a bit close to the red light district. Or at least, where I recall the red light district as being.
Dress is office casual, no denim. Rats. On my way home, I decided to nip into Evans and buy myself a couple of pairs of plain black cotton trousers - indispensable I feel. I don't think I'd get through a week in clean clothes if I didn't do this - I've lived in jeans for the past five years! Popped into M&S on the way home - yum. Had to have a bit of extra for the fridge, because I missed Tesco's this week. Luckily they had some of their wonderful Irish pancakes in stock, which I particularly adore. Not to mention a packet of sausages, some of which I'm having for supper - I missed lunch so I'm really quite peckish!
So we'll wait to hear what happens from all this.

At long last...

Yep, I've got an interview, for a genuine job. Whoever would have thought it? Well ok, maybe not so unbelievable!
Anyhow this arrived via a jobsite alert, for a helpline that's just being set up - I don't really want to say what it is over the internet, but let's say it's medical. It's only call handling, basically people phone in, you follow a script and ask them questions, and give them whatever advice the screen tells you. It's not too badly paid, and they want to set this up in a hurry - hence the interview tomorrow - a Sunday of all days, with a possible start on Monday. Full time until September, which suits me just fine. It is a bit of a way out - Greenock, but they provide a free bus to get there from town.
So, no trip to Tesco for me tomorrow, but then heck, I can stop off in town to do the shopping. I think it's a realistic chance of work, and I'm up for it - I've been idle for way too long! Not to mention that I've got bills building up. So you can expect to hear more after tomorrow!

Bored now...

Yep. Says it all really, doesn't it?
So what have I been doing with myself since I found myself jobless in Glasgow? Well a great deal of time is taken up searching the various jobsites, and applying for various jobs - for the most part it's click and apply, but you still have to write the small email application bit. However I will admit it's very disheartening to be clicking and sending these things off, and you just know for the most part, you're never going to hear anything further of them.
I've been doing a bit of cooking - since I now have a deep freeze, it's only good sense to make the best possible use of it. On Tuesday I made goulash, and I now have four portions of that tucked away, and I've also made and frozen spag bol sauce - at some point over the next few days I may well make a plain tomato sauce, always useful.
I've cleaned until I'm sick of the smell of the cleaning fluids!
I've read more over the past couple of weeks than is really good for my eyes. I don't want to get plunged into the "eye test/new lenses" regime until I really need to. Although frustratingly, I've not been able to get a reading ticket for the university library on the grounds that I don't want to spend the money until it's likely I can recoup it!
I've been staying home mostly, on the grounds that here is where my email is, and I'd rather be here in the vain hope someone responds to one of my applications than not.
But boredom is pretty well where it's at right now. Very, very frustrating. It's a good job that I have good friends and family who prevent this from sinking into depression!!!!