Every sight and every sound / love is in the air

Another lovely list of things that are making me happy right now.

1. That feeling you get when you've accomplished something, finished a project.

2. Having a nice winter with lots of visitors lined up.

3. That it's getting colder. Bear with me - mostly because it means fewer spiders in the house!

4. Mikemikemike. Had to be added.

5. Getting trusted with new things at work. Oh - and realising that your work IS valued.

6. My slippers. And central heating that actually works. Y'kno, since it's getting colder n'all.

7. Lovely letters from lovely friends.

8. Making, creating, crafting.

9. Driving. Scary as hell but almost fun.

10. Nutty apple crumble with custard. Mmm.

A hard day's life.

Inspired by the inspiring Spiderchick.

07.40-08.00 - we wake up, after all our alarms have stopped going off.

08.02 - shower, brush teeth, run about trying to find my dipper card for work (which is always in the same place...)

08.15 - bike/drive (well... get driven!) to work.

08.30 - settling in at work, open up emails and sigh a bit. I ponder breakfast.

08.45 - breakfast time! Porridge at work = best way.

08.48 - work.

13.00 or so - lunch! Usually a short walk to buy a salad/sandwich/soup... and maybe a muffin.

13.15 - back at desk, eat sandwich whilst trying to look productive.

16.00-17.30 or so - home time!

10 minutes later - if I was clever and biked in, I'm home by this time.

...or 30 minutes later - if I'm having to walk back...

18.00 - Mike arrives home, starving. So this usually means it's dinner time! ;)

Bit of TV/reading or maybe the internet (ha! never!) or some charity work. Or all of the above. Until...

22.30 - I start moaning that I'm tired. Mike convinces me to stay up '10 more minutes'.

23.30 - I realise it's been more than 10 minutes and moan some more.

00.00 - I go to bed, moaning some more at Mike to get him to stop working and come to bed so we don't sleep in the next day.



...wow, I do lead an exciting life!!

Overheard in York.

I overheard a conversation on the bus the other day. No, I wasn't eavesdropping: they were so bloody loud I couldn't have stopped listening if I wanted to. And no, I didn't want to. But that's besides the point.

Two girls, PhD students as it later transpired were discussing the woes of not getting published and not being able to get jobs. They were claiming that you cannot get an article published unless you know *someone*. Now from my (fairly limited, it has to be said) experience of the academic publishing world there seems to be something to this. But it's not strictly true. You may have a greater chance of getting your work in a big journal if you know the panel, or rather if they know you. And you may have a greater chance of getting to present at international (or national, for that matter) conferences if you know the panel, or, again, if they know you. But these girls were so incredibly defeatist about it, that's what annoyed me. Hell, if my undergrad dissertation got me a slot at a large conference surely a decent PhD student would have a shot.

As for the jobs thing... well, it was the usual 'I'm so overqualified for all jobs cos I have an masters/PhD/whatever'. Yeah. Sure you are. I hear that a lot - but I'm not overqualified for my job at all; I have no letters after my name attesting to my ability to do student admin, website maintenance or whatever the hell it is I do. Ergo, not overqualified. It's a completely different kettle of fish - being good at phonetics/maths/history/whatever your degrees may have been in doesn't (over-) qualify you for anything other than that. And I know, I know, there are transferrable skills in all these things, blablabla. But I resent insinuations that I'm somehow wasting my life because my job happens to involve filing. Because believe me, I've had them - both from colleages and others.

Anyway, I've gone slightly off tangent here. I realise now that the last little rant sounds like I'm defending my choice of job. Who knows, maybe one day I'll do a PhD or get a job I'm not overqualified to do (HA!) but that day is not coming up soon. What I'm doing isn't a second choice to me at the moment - I wouldn't be doing something I wasn't happy to do.

Wow, tangent again! Back to the girls. The tale sadly doesn't tell us what their PhDs topics are. And I don't know that knowing would make any difference. But I guess the point I'm trying to make is that I'm sick of this elitism, this notion that adding some letters and years of debts to your name makes you somehow superior to someone else.

To quote a brilliant man: 'It takes all sorts to make a world.'

Dag 29 – Mina ambitioner (my ambitions)

My ambitions vary. I'm not sure what I want to do when I grow up. I'm not too bothered about earning loads of money (although, of course, that'd be nice...). As long as I have a job I enjoy with people I don't mind sharing 37-odd hours a week with, a comfortable home to come home to and a nice person to share that home with I'm happy.

Dag 06 – Min dag (my day)

(let's see if this works - put yesterday's date on this post...)

My day? Today? Monday...

We've moved offices today. Everything was packed up in old office so we went to new place, moved some desks around and decided what should go where. Then we waited for the rest of the furniture and the crates of all our rubbi... I mean, stuff. Then we unpacked. It was very exciting!

Some colleagues I will no longer be working (directly) with gave me a beautiful orchid which really made my day. You can kind of see it below:



Also got some nice feedback on my interview and loads of warm welcomes to my 'new' team.

We also went to Tesco, bought lots of incredibly healthy food... Exciting indeed!

Weekend fun.

This has been a lazy weekend. Lots of sleep, pub and thai food yesterday; cleaning & sorting office and some work today. And supermarket - always fun on a Sunday.

Head's empty and it's late so I'll be off to bed - will get better at this. Soon. Promise ;)

xx

Party til the break of dawn.

Tonight I'm out with work colleagues. Should be nice - I don't go out enough.

And yes, of course I do get enough of colleagues at work but I'm sure I can stomach it for one night ;)

Will be nice to see some of them in a different setting!

Radio Julia.

If I was in charge of choosing the music for any radio station it'd be so different. The radio is lame. Especially lame when your taste in music differs from that of the person you're with. Ok, we don't disagree on everything. Far from everything. But... Come on, Steve Lawler? Red Hot Chilli Peppers?

I also wish I could have music on at work. I can, sometimes. Depending on who's in. But if I don't want to offend by making people listen to music they really don't like.

I suppose headphones may be the way forward - but mine are big chunky (red!) closed-cup ones so I think I'd look a bit rude! In-ear ones just fall out of my ears, it's the Backelin-curse... ;)

When I worked at Manchester we'd have some great music blasting (ahem, I mean... on a very reasonable volume) in the office. It was fantastic - Bob Dylan, Amy Winehouse, any and all rock you can imagine. Louise, you need to come work with me here.

That sounds so mean - my colleagues are lovely! But there's less Dylan in my current office.

Find your own way.

I don't get it. It's so easy to write. It's so.. natural. I keep thinking I don't have the time, but to be honest, I do. I just need to plan better, sleep less? Read less, be less lazy.



I wish there was an easy way to write whilst walking. Don't say pen&paper - I won't be able to read my squiggles...



I need to nail down this routine thing. I need to get better at getting up in the morning. I need to find a way to stop getting ill all the time.



So far this morning two people have said I don't look well. But I can't take another day off work; sick days are a bit of a no-no in the real world, if I've understood it all right. Sure, if I'm ill I should stay home. Both to get myself better and to make sure no one else catches whatever lurgy I've got. But when you're ill this much? Ridiculous. Clearly, I need a job where I can work from home.



Trip back to the doctor's is probably a good idea. But they'll just tell me to get more fresh air and exercise. Blahblahblah.



Anyway. Oh, and yes. I'm writing this from work. Lunch break, I think it's called...



Wow, it turned into another moan. Sorry!

Steps 21+22nd April and other assorted fun.

Forgot to reset the counter - so over Weds/Thurs I walked 22551 steps. Not toooooo bad...

This week has been hectic. I've been doing so many different things I don't know what I'm doing in the end. Will be nice to have a relaxing weekend though. Hah! As if.

I'm slightly frustrated by the lack of enthusiasm in certain projects but nothing new there. I just wish people wouldn't take me and other people, and the work we do, for granted. Watch what happens if I take a step back...

Finally spoke to my parents last night, I've been complaining (heh) they haven't rung me in ages but to be fair I've not rung them either... I'm incredibly bad at keeping in touch (which you'll probably know if you know me at all!) and it's something I need to get better at.

But not now. Now I have to go get ready for work.

It's good to write, even if they're just words and there's not much too them. But I like (nearly) all words.

Weekend fun.

Have had a lovely weekend in the sun. I've missed it.

Need to start walking again; I've walked home all week but it'd be nice to walk to work too. Monday is supposed to rain though... perhaps I'll let Fi pick me up (note to self - get her something as thanks!) and see what it's like on the way back? It's easier to walk home cos if you're warm/flustered/soaked from rain when you get home that doesn't matter - it matters more if you're like that when you get to work!

On a different note, I keep meaning to make muffins. Someone just told me he made cookies this weekend - I want cookies!

Having a fairly lazy Sunday night, CSI NY on TV now, Desperate Housewives in half an hour... Have had early nights all weekend but a fair bit to drink so have been knackered - so I think another early(ish) night is in order.

We've also been to view some houses - they've not been great if I'm honest. Two of the three we saw were nice, but very small. One claimed to have a kitchen/diner, the other a dining/lounge. Neither of them would fit a table - especially not ours. Don't want to get rid of our lovely table though!!

We are not airtight.

These are some random thoughts I had last night as I was drifting off to sleep. Normally I don't remember them, should be keeping a note book by my bed really!

I know a girl who claims she never poops. Not as a joke or in that giggly way some girls claim they don't fart (did I say 'some'? I never fart, obviously), she's adamant she does not do number twos.

Not a very nice thing to have lingering on your mind is it? Well it was on my mind at quarter to three this morning so it's only fair it's now on yours.

She's the kind of person I want to shake, and almost shout at her - or at least laugh. My mind is almost tempted to make a mean joke out of it - but that's not the person I am (I just write about it on my blog, see...) - but seriously. If she really does not poo, and has not pooed in her 21 years on this planet, then I'm seriously worried. She really needs to see a doctor about this...

Of course, I'd never say this. I just get that confused wrinkle between my eyebrows and go 'ooook...'


Another thought on my mind 4 hours ago is that I wish some people were airtight! Or that there was at least a mute button on them. Or that I could choose not to see them, kind of like a 'show as offline' button in real life...



In other news, I'm all better now and need to get to work. Yet I'm sat blogging on my sofa. It's raining outside you see, so I'm really not feeling it...

xx

Charity.

I'm torn.

As I was walking home, headphones on, walking quickly as it was so cold, a man approached me asking something. I took my headphones off and stopped to ask him to repeat himself. He asked for some change.

I told him I was sorry, but I had no cash on me. He asked again, 'it's for the phone'. 'I am sorry, I've got no change' I repeated.

He then proceeded to get a bit aggressive with me, he came up close and raised his voice. Like he's entitled to my money, and I was being unreasonable not giving him any. I repeated, again, that I really didn't have any cash, and I walked on, putting my headphones on and walking away. He did shout something after me but thanks to Silverchair I didn't hear him.

Now. I actually didn't have any cash, but that's completely besides the point. I don't like feeling forced or guilt tripped into giving money. Blablabla. I give a lot of my time to a charity of my choice, and I'll always donate pennies etc to the charity boxes in shops. I don't want to be approached and asked for money. If I'm approached in the street by people asking for donations (I don't mean beggars - by charity representatives) I always say I'd love to - but I only have a Swedish bank account so unfortunately I can't. A white lie - I don't want to give out my bank details on the bloomin' street. It is, incidentally, a nice way of getting people to tell me they love me. It's often the only sentence charity fundraisers (especially in Nottingham?!) can say in Swedish.

I digress.

So, one part of me is annoyed and frustrated at being approached by someone asking for change. Not at being approached per se - but at being hassled.

The other part... well, I don't think people would do it if they weren't desperate. It doesn't really matter if this guy was actually wanting change for the phone or if he wanted it for drugs - it was obvious he was desperate for 50p. Or however much he was asking for.

I don't know.

Charities struggle. People struggle. I don't know and don't care if it's because of a recession, because of people letting themselves get into debt or hooked on drugs. The point is, they're struggling. And I'm all for helping people but I believe it needs to be done through the appropriate channels. If nothing else to stop people being taken advantage of.

You see it everywhere. People are so vulnerable and blind, especially where love is involved. I worked with someone who was a complete pushover at the mercy of her son - she was cajoled into babysitting several times a week so that the son & girlfriend could go out. And of course, she loves her grandkids so she does it. And she doesn't moan. But she was being treated so badly - taken for granted. I'm not sure how that relates to the previous paragraphs exactly but nevermind.

I had an idea - partly thanks to Nathan - as I do flexi time, I could technically work 8-6 four days a week and have one day off to focus on house work + my charity work. I may run this past my boss. Not sure it would be allowed though!

It's nearly November now.

This is disgraceful. I'm so bad at updating. Got plenty of half-written posts waiting to be finished, bear with me please!

Am half way through my POVA training, it's quite interesting. And I like the format, it's all online and quite easy to use.

Going to Mike's parents for the weekend - yay! Lots of sweets and nice food, and good company, obviously. I've said I'd make apple & cinnamon muffins. I did consider Hallowe'en-ifying them but I'm now thinking that might get a bit.. icky. Hmm.

I'm about to fall asleep so had better get going. Not been to well lately so need to get myself better for work tomorrow. Wish me luck ;)

xx

Quick catch-up.

Today feels like a Sunday. It's kinda nice to have a second Sunday tomorrow!

Have been busy this past week, work 4 days and Lincoln on Weds for a research meeting. Not going to bore you with it but I really enjoyed it. Met some lovely people too!

I've plenty of things to write about and I will do over the next few days. At the moment the blog posts are being formulated in my head.

It's very sad about Stephen Gately. I wasn't ever a big fan but it's sad. And if you haven't already complained about it - the Daily Mail story is absolutely disgraceful. Most complained about newspaper story in the history of British newspapers, apparently. I'm not surprised!

Off to spend money. Catch you later :)

xx

It's a mad, mad world.

I love my job. It's only temporary but it's great. Editing a book for a European project on high altitude platforms (electronics...). I don't understand much of it but it's fun to learn. I think I'd be quite happy to be an editor/proofreader.

Walked home today, was a lovely afternoon. Half way home I was walking past these three young lads who were raking leaves. One of them was sat in (under?) a big pile of leaves, leaning down into it so you couldn't see his face. The other two were raking and kept looking at me, giggling. Cue paranoia ;)

As I came past the lad sitting down he jumped up, wearing this scary red mask thing. And they all burst out laughing. I wish I'd been quick enough to take a picture, it was funny.

That's the sort of fun we used to have (back in my day...heh). Most groups of kids/teenagers seem to have as their aim to be as annoying as possible. No. That's not fair. Not most. But they're the ones you notice, sadly...

Anyway. I did take a photo of this outside Morrissons:

You might not be able to see it very well. But the mini behind our car has a jolly roger flag on top. I thought it was awesome...

Speaking of awesome:

 

Yes. Yes, I really am sad enough to upload a photo of my finished dissertation to my blog. You'll survive, I'm sure.

Over and out.

Work, blog posts and the... future.

Work is finally going really well. It's a pain finding appropriate sources but I'm working on it.

I've lots of blog posts in my head but not the time to think them through, work them out. So the ideas are scribbled in my polka dot notebook, to be written out properly in time.

Am looking forward to starting work. Where is the only question. Applying for some stuff...

Am pondering doing a CELTA course. Got money to do some sort of qualification but not sure whether to do the 5 (?) week full time one or the evening one which lasts 20 weeks or so. It's hard to decide before I know more about work... If I start the 5 week one and then get a job offer I'll miss out on that, but if I don't do it full time I bet I'll be unemployed for a while. Just out of spite - the universe is funny like that.

However - doing the full time one would mean I could do some temping as a teacher and it'd probably help in getting TA type jobs at all levels.

Oh I don't know. Not a fan of decisions.

In other news, people are so lame. I hate having to interact with people who are hell bent on being difficult, and people who don't think before they speak. A bit of niceness never hurt anyone, right. The world's not going to do you any favours so if you want something for nothing just suck up a bit and be nice, usually works for me. There's a difference between being assertive and aggressive. I'm getting better and better at the assertiveness (yay!) but some people see it as weak to not be on the aggressive side.

I'm rambling. But I don't feel like explaining - the above is an amalgamated rant at several different people who have pissed me off in the past few weeks. 'nuff said.

Righty-oh, I'm off to write a bit more before bed. Toodles!