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.  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 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:

Boredom

Yesterday was very much characterised by the #firstdayback hash tag because that’s how it felt, like the first day back at school after a long summer holiday.  Being off for over three weeks at Christmas certainly didn’t help matters.  I’m now back to the endless drudgery of emails and letters that are either painfully boring or are endless rants and moans of people who have nothing in their lives, no grip on reality and no sense of proportion.  Mix in with that seemingly every other sentence starting “I have artheritus” “I’m disabled” “I was in hospital” or “I’m a pensioner on a limited income.”  Well you know what I don’t give a fuck.  I read those shittie attempts at manipulation day after day after day.  I would be lying if I said that I was de-sensitised as I never have cared, rather that it just gets more tedious as everyday goes by.  On the plus side I’m nearly at the 100 days left mark.  Every cloud.

I am still awaiting the outcome of my interview that was on the 22nd December.  The constant excited nervousness has now subsided and has been replaced by impatience and also to be perfectly honest annoyance.  In all I think I’m just basically despairing, that although tomorrow I should hear something as it’s the last day they quoted to me for an answer but I just feel that it will be the same story over again.  That is, still no reply and the goal posts are moved once again.  I think it’s getting to me as I’ve ended up really wanting to work for the company in question.  I desperately hope that this time tomorrow I’ll be here again, all relieved and posting good news but the “cup half empty” part of me says that this won’t be the case.  Now I just want an answer so I can really start my new year.

I don’t want to sound like such an Eeyore, life’s not that bad.  For one I’ll be booking trips to Dublin and also to Barcelona pretty soon and I’ll only be at work until the end of April.  It’s just that I feel that once I hear back from the interview (hopefully good news) I can throw myself into the new year, putting huge effort into all of my plans as I have something to work towards and aim for.  Not that I’m not enthusiastic now because I am but I just need that extra thing to spur me along to make the extra effort.

 

Obligatory resolutions

Here goes.  I have 15 resolutions for 2012 and though that does seem a tad ambitious I am at the same time pretty confident that everything is quite doable and I have been deliberately specific about my goals.  I feel that 2012 is going to be a good year and a year of many changes and beginnings and I don’t think that I’ve ever felt so excited about a new year and a new chapter.  This time next year I hope that I’ll have a lot to say.

1.  Get sponsorship to train as a Deck Officer.

I want to train as a Deck Officer,  travel the world and hopefully not have to pay tax.  However to train you have to be sponsored by a shipping company and there’s no way around this.  As such achieving this resolution early on in 2012 is pretty essential.  As I type this I am currently awaiting a response from an interview that I had and I have a few other interviews on the horizon.

2.  Start College.

Blatantly this relates to the above but achieving resolution one doesn’t mean that number two will be achieved by default.  There’s a lot of paperwork, medicals and visa applications inbetween  being offered a position and starting College in September, so much to achieve and get through.  This time I know that I won’t be walking out on College before even starting.

3.  Be a good student.

Unsurprisingly this resolution also ties in with the one above it.  I have always been a successful student in the sense that I’ve always done well and achieved high grades but I’ve never been a good student.  I’ve never done things on time, made that extra effort or cared about retaining the information after I’d taken the exam, written the essay or got the grade I wanted.  With this in mind I want to be a good student and I’m hoping that being able to see the practical application of what I’m learning will aid this.

4.  Climb Machu Piccu. 

This is one of my physical challenges of the year.  I know that there’s an almost 100% chance that I will get to trek to Machu Piccu this summer but ideally I want to be able to enjoy the trek and not find it overly arduous.  For the first time ever I want to do something like that and not constantly be thinking about the horror of the physical exertion, I want this to be at most a secondary thought.

5.  Lose more weight.

I lost a decent amount of weight in 2011 and in 2012 I want to be a low-ish to mid weight for my height by the end of the year.  To be less abstract, I want to lose 3.5 to 4 stone and then I’ll never need to lose weight again.  Ever.  Provided I never put any back on which given the effort I’ve had to put in to shift it in the first place seems highly unlikely.  I think it’s doable anyway.

6.  Keep both of my blogs up to date.

I blog regularly and then I don’t blog at all for months and months and months.  I seem to have been like this since I was about 14 or 15 years old.  At the moment I have been blogging regularly on both of my blogs and actually really enjoy it so I aim to keep this up in 2012.  For the record I define regularly as at least one decent sized post per week but hopefully more and I would like to do some travel reviews of places that I’ve been to as well.

7.  Trek in a Rainforest.

This is another physical challenge really.  I had always wanted to see and experience a rainforest but had never had the chance nor the actual inclination.  However, with going to South America this sumer I will get the chance to and I want to make the most of it by being physically fit and not moaning my way through the 3 days of trekking.  Much like Machu Piccu I want to be able to enjoy the experience and not be thinking about the physical aspects of the experience.

8.  Improve my maths and physics.

Ok, so I’m not actually bad at either of these subjects but I haven’t studied them since taking my GCSEs in July 2004 and I’m going to need them.  I could have chosen to study them at A level but didn’t as that would have involved making an effort.  How lazy.  Anyway, I intend to study both maths and physics to AS level standard if not full A level.

9.  Find a boyfriend.

It would be nice if this happened though I’m quite happy to fail at this one if I don’t find the right person in 2012.  There’s nothing worse than being stuck with someone that’s a right pest.

10.  Don’t waste money.

I’m not a great waster of money but I do tend to fall for various odds and ends that do add up.  A book here a downloaded album there and there’s no way I need the vast amount of these things so I’m aiming to cut back and save the money for more important things.

11.  Be more social.

It’s not that I’m anti social it’s more that a lot of the time I just can’t be bothered.  Yes, I’ll agree to going out in the evening but then when I get in from work I can’t bear the thought of heading out again.  On the occasions that I do bite the bullet and going out I do always have a good time and my not being bothered is not a reflection on the company, the problem is with me.  So in 2012 I’m going to just go out and have a good time and not think of an excuse!

12.  Get away for a couple of weekends.

Weekends away to Dublin and also to Barcelona are in the pipeline and it would be lovely to have some sightseeing weekends away with good friends.  I’m sure these trips will come to pass but I’m looking forward to them so much that I want to make sure that they do.

13.  Stay in touch with people.

I’m terrible at staying in touch with all but a very small amount of people and again this is a failure on my part.  I don’t know why I don’t bother, it’s not malicious I just sort of let people fall by the wayside.  Maybe I think that I’m frightened of being the only person making an effort and looking like a fool.  Anyway, from now on in I’ll be making the effort.

14.  Read at least two books a month.

I made a bit of a hash of this resolution last year by not specifying what I intended to get through in order to qualify as having “read more” so this year I’m aiming to read at least two books a month.  I’m not saying that I have to read anything of intellectual merit just two decent sized books a month.

15.  Climb/walk Mount Snowdon.

My final resolution.    I’m not sure why I want to do this one, I think that I’ve seen someone else’s pictures from the same walk and quite fancy it.  That and it is a mountain, albeit a small one, and I like the idea that I’ve climbed a mountain.

That’s that then…

Adventures about the globe

I suppose this is the one of those looking back on the year kind of posts, though really it has come about by me attempting to put my various posts in this blog into catagories.  I came across my travel map of places that I had been to as of the end of 2008 and I thought I would post an updated version after the original.

End of 2008:

End of 2011:

Lazy days

Once again it’s been a really nice couple of days.  My dear friend Soktahu came to visit which was most exciting as it’s the first time that she has had the thrill of “Up Lolland.”  That said the local area wasn’t exactly explored as the weather was horrendous and well, we were just generally being lazy bastards.  It was a delightful.  Amongst many highlights there was an all you can eat breakfast, the girl with the dragon tattoo, late night visits to Maccie Dees and of course an entire series-a-thon of An Idiot Abroad.  I was even spoiled with gifts of delicious peppermint cupcakes and a Royal Guards teddy bear (as I very openly miss London – a very thoughtful gift.)

Hopefully Soktahu will visit again in the spring when the weather is nicer and we can go for a wander further afield, maybe to the beach or Manchester/Liverpool.  Here and there.  Anyway, pictures!

In other news, I am still waiting for the result of my interview though rather strangely they did call today to tell me that they’ll let me know on either Wednesday or Thursday of the coming week.  They did stress that there’s no reason to be concerned and is only due to one person not being able to make the decision (understandable) and that all the people that need to discuss the assessment day have been unavailable.  Fingers crossed for the end of next week, hoping for the best and not sure what I’ll do if it’s the worst.

New years resolutions tomorrow!

A wonderful week

It’s been a very busy yet wonderful week or so.  This time last week I met up with some wonderful friends that I had met in Africa over the summer.  They were in Manchester for the day before going to the airport and we met for a (very) long lunch which was delightful.  It’s not overly often that I find people that I completely hit it off with straight away but in E and R I have found two lovely friends and they have certainly been one of the highlights of my 2011.

I have also had the excitement of my interview this week and still desperately await the outcome of but it has been a relief in some ways not knowing as it hasn’t affected Christmas.  Anyway, Friday brought with it works Christmas lunch at a local hotel and then the 24th brought with it our long awaited “Christmas” day.  We have always in recent years celebrated privately on the 24th due in part to family commitments on the 25th.  The tables have completely turned now and I find myself more excited at the thought of giving presents.

However, that said I did get some wonderful presents, including an ipod touch and not the 8gb one that I had asked for but a larger sized one so that was lovely, the quality of the screen is out of this world.  Amongst other odds and ends I also received a moleskine, swiss army knife, CDs, DVDs and clothes.  Spoiled!

After watching what I eat for most of the year it’s nice to partake in the many delights that Christmas brings with it.  I may be biased but in my opinion there is no better Christmas dinner than the one that we have created over the years through trial and error.  Can I just note that all of these pictures were not taken on the same day!

And finally, nothing like a good fire at Christmas, just a shame that it isn’t colder outside.