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February 28, 2005
Sammi Wrote This
'bout me. It's wonderful.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/x_inspireme_x/
Posted by chantal at 11:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Evolution
Look everyone - a new URL for this site! I'm fond of studios, but press is probably far more appropriate anyway.
Apologies for the complete absence of recent updates. Possible excuses include:
- loathing my job with a passion I didn't know I was capable of.
- losing said job.
- discovering that the hot chocolates were actually making me sick.
- dealing with random crises (not my own, I keep those to myself).
- spamming the friends who let me spam them.
- spamming the Forum and getting away with it.
- instead of a leaving party, going to an ex-colleague's with my predecessor.
- spending way too much time on Messenger.
- trying very hard not to read through mountains of VBA code in preparation for tomorrow's job interview and technical test.
- trying very hard not to pack everything up to work in an archaeological lab in Panama.
- mostly because I'm completely skint.
- reading way too much. 'The Time Traveller's Wife' is an excellent book, by the way - I've already read it twice. Having reread the Inca trilogy by A B Daniel, I've been trying to find an Aztec equivalent. I'd far rather read it than write it.
- but reached the conclusion that I should read far more Charles de Lint.
- staring at the garden waiting for my few hundred tulips to appear.
- well, not really.
- largely because it's so bloody cold, I'd far rather stare at a radiator.
- or one of my duvets.
- not taking the laundry out of the washing machine. I hope it doesn't start to rot soon.
- trying very hard not be abducted to Turkey.
- trying very hard to be abducted to Fuerteventura or anywhere between the Rio Grande and the Darien Gap.
- listening to enormous quantities of Queensryche, after a 12-year absence.
- it's lovely listening to music where I actually understand the words. My Arabic is still pretty limited.
- establishing that I have no idea whatsoever where to buy helium, least of all in Fuerteventura.
- planning to return to dance classes but then having to postpone them on the grounds of being skint. Also one of the classes clashes with another, another clashes with ER.
- reading lots of lovely comments on the Forum wishing me all the best with unemployment. I'd expect to be lynched instead for how I've been hijacking it.
- Oh, a few of them are musicians. My Mexican guitar finally has a 6th string and a pick, and when I'm employed again, a bucket of sheet music for it. I've been staring at it quite long enough without playing it, I've decided.
- still no progress with the harp recordings though.
- shame the database market in Paris isn't healthier.
- those last two were connected, by the way.
- still trying to exorcise Gary Jules's 'Mad World' from my head. Maybe I should just buy a DVD player and a copy of Donnie Darko.
- but happily singing along to Shakira and Queensryche.
- except that being woken by Shakira on my stereo tends to put me in a silly mood.
- not that it takes much anyway....
- I really need to get to Virgin to do something about those record tokens in my bag.
- being bullied into spending Friday evenings with the Project crowd
- and being similarly bullied (but in two languages) into spending more time at the Rose and Crown.
- oh, not-celebrating six years in this misbegotten country. It wasn't a happy day, but being given my notice at work did help improve it.
- basically milking any chance I can get to laugh and be silly.
- still not reading through any VBA code or getting the laundry any further out of the washing machine.
Will that do?
Posted by chantal at 01:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 12, 2005
Bloody Hell
Not only is this my 50th entry on here, but I've just Googled this site and found 74 hits (I didn't bother to check the 'similar yet hidden' ones). One website gave me 149 votes.
I'm beyond flabbergasted.
Shit!
Posted by chantal at 11:42 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
February 08, 2005
Hmm
Four jobs, three countries. Two in Guatemala, both part-time: one is being paid to talk to people, and then write up the conversations; the other is to look after other people’s gardens. I’m not so sure about the job in Fuerteventura, but it’d be working for a good friend in his new hotel/apartment complex in a tourist resort, good weather guaranteed. I’d rather be in Corralejo than Caleta, but then again, I’d probably rather be in either than in London. The fourth job is the one I currently have, which involves no work, no social interaction, no illusions, obscene quantities of hot chocolate, and an office clique which I continue to despise after over three months.
It’s a miracle I’ve survived three months there, though perhaps a godsend, given the current state of the job market; nonetheless, out of those three months, I’ve not yet worked a complete month, and probably that, the large quantities of hot chocolate and jokes are the only things which enable me to return every morning. Since Fil, my only friend, left a week ago, presumably it’s just force of habit which gets me up and out each morning.
I’ve temped for six years now, and can wholeheartedly say that this is the only job I’ve had where I’ve not had a single friend, not since Fil left. I’m learning that I can expect a conversation with a single random stranger every day – for example, the Big Issue Manager outside the office is leaving on Friday to work for David Beckham as his nanny – but no more than that. On Wednesday, I spent an hour stranded at Waterloo East station waiting for my train, but justified it as I spent most of that time chatting with a woman called Donna. She was rushing home to take her cat to the vet, but given the time needed to get the cat into the sodding cage, she had to cancel the appointment.
Today I had to give my new colleague an introduction to his job, which was extremely hard work given I had to pretend not to be as jaded, disillusioned, bitter, fed up, desperate to leave, prone to violent tendencies, sick of the place as I actually am. All the more so as our boss was sitting opposite him for most of the time. Later, when we met alone at the coffee machine by the other office, I gave him a franker summary of the job, in that there isn’t one, and if he can’t find ways of keeping himself busy till he quits, he’ll go mad.I’d hoped he was a smoker; if he was, I’d planned to have forced him to give in his notice by the end of yesterday, his first day.
What keeps me going are my ex-colleagues. I know it’s probably not healthy to be so dependent on them, especially after several months of no longer working with them, but it’s those who email, chat, text daily who I’m the most grateful for. Those who don’t are those I can’t be bothered with, for the most part. I have zero interest in being taken for granted, and a sufficiently bad memory that friends are deleted on a fairly regular basis. Martin’s often said that, according to his memory, any office with me in it will be a loud office; I’m fairly certain that one of the main reasons for Paul kicking me out of the other office was that I was too much of a distraction for Jay and Fil (ND being best avoided at all times, whatever Fil says in his defence). I loathe the idea of me being clingy or needy, but god I wouldn’t have survived the last few months without Matt, Jenny, Ian, Martin, Paul, Rahat, Zak, and the other occasional Project contacts. I had a phone call a week ago about a job in Woking, and my first thought was of proximity to Steve and Mike. Being near them would be reason enough to take the job.
Perhaps if I actually had a job, if I actually had something to do with my days besides read through the helpdesk database, the HR database (illicitly), look up yet more photos for Zak’s website, anxiously check Msn Messenger for certain contacts, the Project would fast become a distant memory. I’ve known for a while, however, that I won’t have any such job until I leave RCN, which means the most crucial question now is: do I linger on, depressed on more or less a daily basis, holding out for a replacement job, or do I get the hell out and take one of the other three job offers currently up for grabs? Almost a stupid question to ask, almost as stupid a question to ask what’s stopping me….
Okay, so I know what’s stopping me, I just don’t know if it’s worth my while.
Posted by chantal at 11:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack