My New Job

My new job started this week. So far I've had an induction, an office induction, a cupboard induction (no, that's not a joke) and met three kids, lots of teachers (including one very nice one!) and went to the greyhound track for a staff outing which, in case you were interested, I finished £13 up at. Actually, I'm probably being a bit glib about the work. I've actually really enjoyed it and am really starting to get a good grip on all the things I'm going to have to do, especially with the one on one mentoring stuff I'm going to have to be doing in schools.

Apart from the new job, the new/temporary house is going fine. It's a good bunch of guys that I live with and they all seem to approve of my DVD collection, which is always a good thing. Tonight I'm going with one of my new housemates (who I also now work with) and some other friends to watch the Chelsea v Liverpool match at the pub. That's once I've finished at work since I'm working at a break dancing club in 45 minutes. Don't worry though, I'm not teaching, or if at all possible, taking part in the actual break dancing, just supervising the young people.

Two Months Later

A lot has changed for me in the last couple of months. I've moved from Edinburgh, via Sheffield, back to London. I've got my first professional youth work job and my first real job of any sort for a good few years. I've worked in a bar full of South Africans and, when not messing about with spits and carrying crates of beer up the seemingly endless stairs, enjoyed it. I've made a whole bunch of new friends, caught up with some very good friends and seemingly lost one or two as well (nothing I've done I might add, they just haven't been in touch with me despite my texts, but there you go).
I've shared a flat with one of my best friends, and his wife, which, whilst I was worried would be awkward since I didn't really know her that well before hand and, well, they are pretty much still fairly newly wed (they got married in February). But this has turned out to be a great couple of months of flat sharing, which ends on Saturday when I move temporarily, to share a bedroom (although, and I can't stress this enough!) not a bed with one of the guys that I've met.
All these cosmetic changes have been great and very much needed, but, and allow me a quick navel gazing moment here, over these last couple of months I've started to feel more and more at ease with myself, my work, my spirituality and started, dare I say this, to feel kind of happy and settled. A lot of the reasons for this is the amazing group of friends (both old and new) I have here and the support, friendship and encouragement they've shown me. I'm sure this feeling won't last, it usually doesn't (you see, I'm still a skeptical, cynical Northener at heart) but for now, well, things are on the up.

And just a quick word to Jo. Don't worry mate, the cleaning has tailed off a bit and, I'm sure as soon as I start work I'll be ready to do nothing as much as possible, it's just two months (with the odd day of work here and there) doing nothing can test the endurance of even the laziest do nothinger, and I don't think I'm quite of the laziest ones, although I'm sure I could get there with enough practice.

Limbo

Just so you understand, when I say Limbo, I'm not talking about the good kind where attractive and athletic women prove just how flexible they are by walking, bent backwards under a pole but limbo as in 'stuck in limbo'. These last two weeks I've had no sessional work with YIP and I don't start my next job until next week so I find myself with absolutely nothing to do. This is now to the point of just lying in bed all day watching dvd's and trying to work up the energy to leave the house or think of something interesting to do when you're trying to save money, so today my highlight is going to be going online for a few minutes and later, ane you may need to grip something here in order to cope with the sheer excitement of this, get my hair cut. i never thought I'd be in a position where I'm actually looking forward to working, I've always been so good at doing nothing. What's happening to me? Is it possible I'm all doing nothinged out?

A Lot Can Happen In Two Weeks [Updated - with new added photo's]

Hi everyone.
First of all another apology for not having blogged something sooner. I'm still very limited with my time on the internet, my wonderful cafe has been slightly less wonderful this last couple of weeks as the wireless network has been a touch eccentric in its willingness to work which has meant that when it has, I've had to take the opportunity to do the more boring and mundane things like check e-mails and download songs.

Another reason for not writing anything sooner is that the last time I had the chance was the day after my job interview and I was feeling pretty crap about it. I'm sure you've had the experience, but it's certainly similar to coming out of an exam and realising that all the answers you gave were so completely wrong that you're sure you gave answers on history all the way through your science exam. I can clearly remember at one point saying that I was articulate and then, as they asked the next question, and with my brain screaming at me to say something intelligent and, well, articulate, the only thing I could come up with was to say 'erm' a few times in the style of Hugh Grant in Four Weddings and a Funeral. So, that's my roundabout way of saying that I didn't want to write about my job interview because I was so depressed about it that the thought of talking about it at all was even more depressing.
However, like all those exam results, it wasn't as bad as I thought, and it turns out that I got the job! Which is obviously absolutely fantastic, exciting and basically good. I start on the 26th, so got a couple of quiet weeks and then the madness starts.

Another absolutely fantastic, exciting and basically good thing that has happened since I last talked to you all, is that England have won the Ashes! (which for the uninitiated of you is the biggest cricket victory England have had in my living memory). It was a wonderful moment, I've always been a cricket fan and to see them win against Australia was something I honestly thought I'd never see. Tuesday morning, the day after the victory, I got up early to celebrate with all the rest of the seventy odd thousand sad people that call themselves cricket fans in Trafalgar Square as the English Cricket team arrived in their open top bus and we basically celebrated, showed off and, for some reason, sang Jerusalem.

Strangely enough, for a day that started in trafalgar square, I ended up there again around 15 hours later, and yes, that was the middle of the night. At about ten thirty that evening I got a phone call from a friend of mine to say that he and his girlfriend had just landed in Heathrow and weren't getting a train home to the morning so did I want to meet them in central London for a drink? Since I didn't have to get up the next morning, I decided that it couldn't hurt, and so, having spent a few hours in a late night bar then a late night cafe, I ended up giving them the tourists walk around London at three in the morning. We went to Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, Downing Street, the London eye, the south bank and across waterloo bridge (my favourite bridge for a view down the Thames) and despite walking to all these places, hardly saw another person, apart from a few vaguely worried policemen watching us as we walked down the mall towards buckingham palace pointing out all the surveillance cameras cunningly hidden in the lampposts. It was an incredibly fun, funny and wonderful night as we chatted about everything, nothing and climbed on lions in trafalgar square. I got back home at seven thirty in the morning, knackered, achey and very happy.

Now, sor those who aren't sure what Lard's on about, a couple of photo's that, whilst not great because they were taking at night with no flash, illustrate the point. The first is of AJ mounting a lion in trafalgar square, the second is of Kate enjoying a the statues outside Buckingham palace:

Spitting Mad and Finally the New Phone

This last week I've sort of spent in a knackered, achey haze. Last weekend (a bank holiday weekend if you remember) I worked 3 14 hour shifts on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Now this in itself is fairly crap. Add to that the fact that I'm working for minimum wage, with no overtime and no extra pay for the bank holiday. Add to that the fact that (and remember my job is as a BARMAN) I spent all Sunday (day) learning how to make a spit and all Monday making them, as well as lugging spits, carcasses, crates and kegs of beer up and down the apparently limitless number of spiral staircases in the bloody building. It was crap, I was doing stuff that clearly doesn't fall within the job description of 'barman' and I was paid sod all for it. I was doing youthwork Tuesday, Wednesday and I'd arranged to meet a friend first thing Thursday morning, so today was the first chance I had to actually have a good, long lie in (which I did). And the fun thing? I get to start all over again at 6:00 tonight when I start my first shift of the weekend at the bar. I SO hope I get this job next week, cos then I can tell the admittedly nice people at the bar where they can stick their crappy job.

On a good note though, Orange finally sorted out my account and I got my lovely new phone today. I'm back on a Nokia (6230i if you're interested) and now I get to go home and play with it (my phone!) for a bit before I go to work. Which, as a geek, is something I'm looking forward to.