Travel fit

Work is still sort of non existent, but working a 22 hours week instead of a full-time week does have its advantages in that I’m able to spend a lot of time in the gym.  The more I read about the trek to Machu Picchu the more I think oh my…  I’m pretty fit these days but have the athletic equivalent of white coat syndrome.  Every time there’s a physical challenge in front of me I convince myself that I can’t do it, that’ll get tired, hold everyone back and as such fail.

I don’t know why I do this but I do.  I did it for days and days leading up to the gorilla trek last summer, I tied myself up so tight I was almost a bit of a mess…  In reality it was fine.  It was a challenge, we stopped for breaks and it was tiring but I did it just as well as anyone else.  I think if I don’t put this stupidity to the back of my mind it will come back over and over again unless I somehow train to an athletic standard.  Not going to happen.  Slow and steady wins the race is what will happen though.

(Photo credit to:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/tropical-blizzard/2084310843/)

On the subject of my summer trek to South America, I’m starting to get pretty excited and the other day marked the 3 month countdown.  This might sound like a while but seeing as I paid the deposit for my trip back in September it feels like it’s just around the corner.  Scarily so in fact.  I’ve been starting to buy some of the bits that I need, namely silk sleeping bag liners, fleece liners, a new backpack and a fake therma-rest.  Yes, I’m petrified of being cold.  There were a few nights in Zimbabwe when it was so cold that I actually couldn’t sleep and this is not something I want to repeat.

Also this year I’m going for minimalism in what I take.  I don’t tend to take loads of crap away with me but last summer I took quite a large bag which allowed me to take more things…  Mainly I took extra clothes that in all honesty were a hassle more than a benefit.  I’m being strict this year and I have to be seeing as my rucksack is around 80 litres and in there needs to go all of my camping things.  No room for shite.  I’m also going to need to drag my things all the way from Rio to Buenos Aires before I join the overland truck part of the my trip starting in Santiago so I don’t want the added horror of a bag that’s huge and full and heavy.

There’s just generally so much going on at the moment.  I should receive some of the paperwork for my new job over the next couple of weeks or so.  I’m off to Ireland this coming weekend, renewing my passport that week too and then going to Barcelona for a long weekend a couple of weeks after that.  Mix into that trying to remember maths, gym-ing everyday and planning my summer trip there’s a decent amount of things to be getting on with.

Honourary Zimbo?

Did I ever mention that Zimbabwe is my favourite country in the whole wide world?  When I’m there I really never want to leave, even with the power cuts and the water being off at random.  I don’t want to discuss all of the issues going on there right now, of which there are many, because that’s not the point of this entry.  I just want to say that underneath everything it is such an amazing country and YOU should go there.  Right now.  You’ll never regret it.

Here Goes:

The End.

Relief!

After an absolutely horrendous month of waiting (2 weeks to hear if I’d got the job and 2 weeks to hear if I was going to suffer if the government funding was cut) I finally have my answer and it’s good news.  It was announced on Monday that SMarT funding is going to stay at its current level of £12 million per year until at least 2015.  This money goes towards the training of British Merchant Navy officers and as far as I’m aware it supplements training to the tune of about 40%. Then the company that sponsors you picks up most of the remaining costs, though they do get tax breaks for this.

I’m lucky in that I’ve been offered sponsorship by a pretty interesting company who own their own vessels which operate all over the world.  They also actually employ qualified British Officers as opposed to some who will train British Officers for the tax breaks but don’t actually employ Brits in their fleet.  There’s a fair amount of debate about this and to be honest I don’t know enough to comment as it’s possible to have a mixed experience with any company.  I do think it’s nice to know that there is the potential to be offered a job in the end and they also seemed genuinely interested in the quality of the training and making sure their trainees got the most out of it all which is nice.

I’ve been offered interviews with other companies but I’m happy with my original offer as it’s a good package on the table so to speak.  It means that subject to passing a medical and sorting out all of the paperwork I’ll most probably be off to Southampton come September.  I won’t pretend, I’m majorly excited and it can’t come soon enough.  I finally have a career type job and one that I actually see myself in 10 years down the line not just for the next few months at best (like now.)  I am however going to have to brush up on my maths and physics.  Those two have not been a part of my life for a long, loooooong time!

Anyway, that’s all of my life in a nutshell right now.  My current job is decreasing by the week, this coming week I’m working 6.5 hours.  Seriously, what the fuck use to me is that?  I am however on a countdown, only about 93 days until I’ll be leaving and believe me I’m counting down and crossing off each day in my diary.  In addition to this I’m also thinking when I should announce my leaving at work (end of April) as I wouldn’t want a request for a reference to appear before I’ve mentioned this…

Dubious Art

I’ve wanted a new tattoo for a very long while, not something overly epic and expensive as I still have one of those needing to be finished.  If anything, and I hate to say this, I would like something cute.  Not girly cute, not Herro Kitty et al but something small and nice.  Millions of ideas have passed through my mind, some good, some not so, until very late last night when I was browsing Tumblr and I saw this:

I would give credit where it’s due but sadly there’s no information to go on.  There’s really something that I like about this, I wouldn’t have the same words, nor the same font but I love the placement.  What I will say though is it looks brand new which also means that I wouldn’t be overly surprised if perhaps the lower parts of the tattoo have faded/worn away with time due to the fact it’s very close to the sole of the foot.

I thought about “Live Free” though it sounds rather cheesy and too much like “Live strong.”  For the moment I’ve settled on “Stay Free” which has randomly clicked with me and is also a nod towards The Clash which I like also.  Maybe I could use my own handwriting, it is a font in itself afterall…

Bad times

Things are not good at the moment, not good at all.  For one work is barely happening at the moment.  I’ve gone from (other than mid-late December) working 40 hours a week to 14 hours.  What use is this to me, the pittance that this provides me with on a weekly basis?  As I’m always reminded I’m on a zero hours contract and there’s nothing I can do.  However there are a number of reasons why I’m actually fucking seething.  For one in the history of my role (not necessarily with me in it) this situation only occurs in December when it goes really, really quiet and I took the job partly on the basis it was more “permernant.”  The fact that there is very little hours now is due to blinding incompetence and abysmal management throughout the entire company.  At best I’m told it will be like this until the end of February.

What actually causes me to seethe even more though is the lack of social responsibility.  They just do not give a shit.  I’m not even just referring to myself, there are people that have had to move back home after having their own house/flat because they are just told sorry you’re not required.  This is not even the half of it and I could literally go on and on but the bottom line is they can’t act like they employ 10 people.  They employ in the region of 500 and 90% of people are on these you are lower than a piece of shit contracts.

I’ve tried to stir up revolution amongst my colleagues but they would rather piss and moan and do nothing about it.  This I tell them is partly the reason they are treated like shit.  The company rely on them just rolling over and accepting the abysmal status quo and they are not disappointed.  I’m not someone you pick up and put down and I won’t stand for it and every time I hear “I would apply for another job but there are none” another part of me dies.  There may not be lots of jobs but if you don’t even bother to apply for things then shame on you.

I really can’t wait to name and shame the people that I work for when I leave.  Not only do they masquerade as a UK manufacturer but their questionable interpretation of employment law is shocking.  If the rather large group of people that buy their products, that think they are buying UK made goods knew they were in fact made in India…  I can’t see them being happy.  At best, a moderate number of things are “assembled” in the UK, at worst well, nothing is really.  Let’s say for the time being that the ice berg is very prominant on the horizon but H***** S**** is ploughing ahead at full speed.

In other stress news my job offer that came as a result of my pre Christmas interview is still not 100% confirmed.  I’m waiting to hear if there will be any funding “issues” because I already have a degree.  At this moment in time they don’t think there will be (with their company) but I have to wait to hear for sure.  If it’s not good news I really don’t know what the initial next step is and also what the longer term next step would be.  All I can do is wait but for the time being my stress headaches are back with a vengeance.

Cold Light

The cold stark light of mid January time seems to have struck.  Christmas and New Year seem like long distant memories, the excitement of resolutions has faded and the realisation that lots of money needs to be saved and a fair amount of weight needs to be lost is beginning to sink in.  Not only this but a literal mountain of paperwork needs to be sorted, I’ve realised that my passport needs to be changed which is a long story, part of which is that it’s almost full.  In addition to all of this hopefully this week my job offer should be fully confirmed and sorted out.  If not, complete meltdown will ensue.

My current job is not going brilliantly as due to constant mismanagement of pretty much all of the major aspects of the company there isn’t a lot of business and that equates to no work for me.  Basically I’m working a part time week.  This is obviously no good for saving money.  To be honest it all makes me quite angry, not that I’m the worst affected or even massively affected but as I work for a company that has grown rapidly they still behave like a small employer and take no social responsibility at all.  Well, apart from the fact that the managing directors daughter is starting work in the marketing department tomorrow.  I don’t feel it presumptuous to assume she probably has neither the skill nor the aptitude for the newly created post.

In good news though, after an almost 7 year wait come Friday I’ll finally have my own car and it’s all I can do not to go completely and utterly chav.

All I want to do is tint all of the windows, change the stereo, stick on a sun strip and install a lexus lights/ LED combination.  I’m probably going to get a set of black alloys but other than that I’m going to hold the rest of the chav-ness in.  After all I’m not 17 anymore.

Should be blogging more this week seeing as I have so much free time on my hands, hoping to wade through some of my travel photos and maybe post a few of the nicer ones from summer 2010 as I’ve never really got around to it.  Also check me out, finally back on Tumblr after a 2.5 year break.  I’d forgotten how much fun it is and how brilliant a lot of the photographs are that get reblogged there.

Pressing on

What a week! The horror of going back to work has been neutralised some what by the fact I have been offered the job that I went for just before Christmas and a job that I really, really wanted. I got a feeling on the day that I’d done well but as there was more than one position on offer I thought that most of the people there would be offered a job. Seemingly not it would appear which makes me feel like I’ve achieved something in a small way. I’m pretty pleased with the offer, I do potentially have some other interviews on the horizon for the same job with different companies and though I plan on playing the field I’m pretty certain I’m going to accept the offer I currently have. At the moment I’m just waiting for some things to be clarified and then I’ll make everything public knowledge!

Making fantastic progress with my resolutions and we’re only on week one of 2012, not only have I been offered the job, I’ve also been out to the pub with old friends and didn’t moan (much) and have booked my weekends away to Dublin and to Barcelona. Winning. Though knowing me I’ll crash and burn by the end of week two. Hilariously I’m that busy and have that much to do I’ve bought an entire notebook to devote to my “to do” list. The period up until the beginning of May is going to be so busy that work is going to be secondary by far despite it taking a mind numbing 40 hours of my week.

At least I have little gems like this to keep me amused in the office: