I hope this post gives Ashers something to pass the time...

Ahh, it's been so long that since I wrote a blog post that I'm going to fire off a quick one now!  Really shouldn't let this fall by the wayside.  I'll be like a Digi-Dori: "Just keep blogging, Just keep blogging..."  You see - pop culture references and everything on my blog!

Here's a quick update on the Lack Of Job situation:  I still don't have one.  However, I did apply for a great sounding job for UNICEF in London, which the advert said was the perfect foot in the door for anyone wanting to move from admin to the charity sector. Er, hello, that's me!  So I spent ages doing my application and sent it in on Saturday.  If I don't hear anything back in the next two weeks I didn't get it...  Found out today that I didn't get an Oxfam job I'd applied for, but there is a job going at the Glasgow Women's Library where I already work as a volunteer, so I'm going for that.  Right now, that would actually be The Dream.

I signed up for a temping agency as a stop-gap, not had my first shift yet but they said it's been quiet for the Easter hols and should pick up next week.  So that'd be good, to get a bit of money in.  I had a interview for a sales assistant job at Ollie and Nick in Princes Square, but I didn't get it.  Just the latest in a long list of rejections.  *Sigh*

Today I'm braving my way to Cessnock to talk to people at the charity Unity, who help asylum seekers new to the UK.  They do a women's group in the west end, so I'll try and get involved in that, and see what else I could do.  It's all good experience, which is what I really need, so I'm pleased to have found another opportunity!

In less boring work chat, I have a wedding to go to at the weekend, and I can't decide what to wear - I have 2 options, or a fail safe, standby black dress that I could wear if I had to.  The main options are: a full length (it was midi-length on the model on the asos website; it's maxi-length on me!) gold sequined, one-armed number with a straight falling skirt and a slit up the back.  I normally hate one-shouldered/-sleeved things but for some reason I like this.  The problem is that it's a wee bit clingy on the tummy and that's making me unsure.  My mum suggested Spanx, which I've never worn before, but I guess they could be the answer.

The other option is a lovely red and black dress that I've had for years but never worn yet.  It's a very vibrant red, with black straps and is slightly more casual than the gold.  If I wore this dress I'd also wear my new feather hairband, which is really quite fantastic.   The red dress is slightly tight over the boobs which is what's putting me off! 

Really can't decide at all.  I'll have to try them both on again tonight and make up my mind so I'm not panicking at the last minute! Also, to make sure I've all my accessories organised and looked out.

Anyone have any words of wisdom and advice??

"Sorry... no matching jobs available."

That's what it says every time I do a search on S1jobs recently.  Today I've tried:

• Fundraising/Charity - 1 non-voluntary post that was a management position for Scottish Opera, no good.  
• Heritage/Cultural/Library - 0. 
• Admin - only crappily paid reception jobs (which, I'm not just being fussy here, I've applied for before and never get because I don't have 'reception experience'), plus
• 1 job at Glasgow School of Art that I'm applying for, though this is only a 9 month maternity cover, which would put me in the same position I was in with my last job, and we all know how that worked out. 

I'm debating whether it's even worthwhile applying for a temporary job that's not going to lead anywhere, but I probably will anyway if only to make me feel like I've managed to do something constructive today.

Haven't heard back from Woman Kind, and now I don't think I will.  It's amazing how quickly the positivity seeps away, really.  But there it is, it's all gone, and today I feel crappy. 

That's right kids, it's not all shopping and wine-filled lunches when you're unemployed - there's also the rubbish flip-side where you sit in the house filling out forms for jobs you don't want or are over-qualified for, or watching daytime TV and drinking coffee.  Then, once in a blue moon, you find a job that gets you really excited and you know you could do well, and you spend ages applying for it and then you don't even hear back about it.  Not even a rejection email, because most places are "eliminating surplus admin costs" which means they can't spare 20 mins of some admin assistant's time to stick your name and email in a Mail Merger and send out a standard email telling you didn't get the job.

Definitely, today is not a good day.  Maybe it's hormones, or the come down from the huge excitement I felt for the Woman Kind job, or maybe it's just boredom, but today I'm feeling really shit and can't snap myself out of it.  For some reason, I just feel really upset about everything and that's stupid because it's not going to change anything, and all it does is make me not even get anything done, like redoing my CV, because I feel crap and can't concentrate.  I might go and have some coffee and sit on the patio for a bit of fresh air, and then come back to it.

I've also got my jobcentre appointment coming up again, and I always go in feeling like I haven't done enough, or like I should have a job by now.  And then when I'm there the 'advisors' don't even give a shit anyway, and there must be tonnes of people who go in and actually haven't even bothered trying to get jobs, but I still feel like I'm being lazy or complacent cause I haven't even had any interviews yet.

The weather's very strange today, uber foggy, I can hardly even see the other side of the street out my window.  It's kind of mirroring my moods (or maybe I'm mirroring the weather, who knows?) - yesterday was a lovely bright, cheerful sunny day, even though it was quite cold.  And today is grey and cloudy and foggy and quiet.  That's kind of how my head feels just now: fuzzy and full of cotton wool, and grey, negative thoughts.

I'm meeting HM and KM later today, about half past 5, so that'll probably help cheer me up.  I don't mind wallowing in my own thoughts but I don't tend to talk about it much, really, and I think that's a good thing.  I can kind of explain how I feel but I don't want to go on about it when I'm with other people, and then, I guess, just thinking and talking about other stuff gets me out of my own funk, a bit.  On the other hand, maybe I'm actually suppressing all the crappiness and will end up with an ulcer or something, ha ha.

Think I'll go for that coffee now and then come back to the jobs.  I'll look up the London websites, instead of the Scottish ones, and maybe I'll feel a bit better to see there are actually some jobs going and it's not all hopeless...

I had a nightmare that I'd had to get a job in Primark.

Yeah, it was one of those totally random dreams that make no sense no matter how you look at it afterwards and it also seems to have been in 2 or 3 bits.

First of all there was the bit where I asked in Primark if they had any jobs going, assuming that they wouldn't and I wouldn't have to do it.  But then the woman said that the were looking for staff and said that I'd probably definitely get the job because I  spoke Spanish. I've just remembered that my Spanish friend ALA mentioned Primark in a message to me last night, and that's maybe where this whole thing came from.  Anyway.  So I ended up lying about having retail experience and then I was to go back in the next day for an interview, but the first person I spoke to had put in a good word for me and I probably had the job anyway.  And all the while, in my dream head I was going, Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

In the next part of the dream, I found myself with 3 other people who were meant to be from the Glasgow Feminist Network, and for some reason we were all sitting in someone's living room analysing a poem. Then 2 of the women had a big argument, one of them stormed out, then the rest of us read on in this uber long poem and realised it was all about Vampires and how to protect yourself from becoming one if you get bitten.  I've also just realised where this might have come from, cause I mentioned in passing last night, this guy who I once borrowed the book Dracula from.  Or then again maybe I'm just  bit mad.

So, the end of this dream was going in to MM's kitchen (but it wasn't her real kitchen, I just knew that it was in my dream) and she was sitting there with RJ and they were asking about ... my Primark interview which was that afternoon!  So it all tied in together, and it still made no sense whatsoever.

I wanted to write that down cause it was one of those mad-ass dream but I hope it wasn't too boring too read about.  Don't want to become one of *those* people who spend half an hour every morning telling you about their dreams the night before, which you slowly die of boredom into your morning coffee.

On to more important stuff: the pub!  Went to orchestra last night (it was OK, but we played Beethoven's 8th and it sounded disastrous) (We also did Night on a Bare Mountain though, so that was nice) and afterwards I went to the pub with ED and another girl S from the percussion section.  We went to Speakeasy's only to find that the quiz wasn't on as we were the only people who entered (winners by default, surely?) and then we went to Mono which is attached to the Polo Lounge.  Cheap booze, and decent music for a while.  Then it started getting busy and crap so we left.  Me and ED got a taxi and it was only £6.50 to drop him off in Crossmyloof and go on to mine in Cathcart.  Private cabs are where it's at!!

Still no word from Woman Kind, and I'm starting to lose hope.  So today I'm finishing off re-doing my CV and then forwarding it on to various people and then checking out the job websites again. Fun day ahead. Ho hum.

 

Anyone out there got anything better planned for today? :)

This blog is dedicated to Emma Wade, from Valencia

...but actually from Yorkshire.  Which is what really cemented out friendship in the Irish pub where I worked: Tetley's beer.  Not to be confused with Tetley's tea, which I would not recommend drinking by the pint. For those of you who don't know, Tetley's is a very nice light ale, and may well be my favourite beer ever.  I've drank a lot of beer in my time, but I'm not scared to go out on a limb and say that Tetley's is my favourite.  Any promotional work that may come my way because of this will be happily accepted.

Anyhoo, this blog is dedicated to Em because I was chatting to her and she said she wanted a mention. So now she has not just a mention but her name is in the blog description - the bloggers equivalent of having your name up in lights in front of a theatre! Or it would be if I had more followers.

Not looking forward to the Jobcentre tomorrow, it's so depressing and smelly and dank in there and the guy who usually deals with me is nice-but-dim and essentially useless in my quest for work.  Tomorrow I've to get an interview to 'reassess' my jobhunting and to see if the jobcentre has been useful in helping me find work.  Frankly, I'm going to tell them the truth, that I find them distinctly unhelpful!  Constructive criticism and all that.

After that evil start to my Tuesday (oh yes, it's at 9:30 am, too, thanks Jobcentre) I might have orchestra practice tomorrow night - we're playing Moussoursky, whose name I can't spell but whose music I really like - and then on Weds me and FD are going to visit a certain MM out in the grand hometown of Tunnock's Tea Cakes.

Anyone else see that sitcom, Episodes, that was on tonight?  With the curly haired guy from Green Wing (I secretly quite fancy him. It's the luscious mop top) and Tamzin lady from Black Books?  It was quite funny acutally, though obvs not as good as Green Wing which was amaing.  Fact.  Got me through many a hard time when I should have been essay-writing at uni!

I want to buy the new nail polish from Barry M - the nail effects one, it looks really good! But just when I thought I was on to a good thing and could have some funky, original nail looks going on... I went to Boots to buy it and it was sold out. Guess I'm not the trail-blazing trendsetter I thought I was then.

Speaking of blazing trails of fashion, wtf would I wear (WILL I wear, positive thinking.) if (when.) I get an interview in London. Should I go uber professional and attempt some kind of a suit?  Or should I show my creative side and wear something smart with a SPLASH! of colour and originality?  I'm leaning more towards the latter - at least it might help them to remember me!  COuld wear my beauuuutiful Aurora Borealis beads and mesmerize them, like Ka from Jungle Book, until they offer me the job. Yes. That sounds like the best plan so far. A sure fire winner. How can it fail?

Ah 11 o'clock already and I just ate some chicken so now i'm full and not ready to go to bed.  A quick bed update, as I'm sure you're all on tenterhooks:  the new mattress is amazing.  I would like to sum up by saying that a memory foam mattress is like a hug in bed form.  You lie down, and it moulds to your body.  Bliss.

Buenas noches, faithful readers.