February 2004

28/02/2004 12:12 AM

My replacement PDA arrived today, for which I am very grateful. I can only assume that it is a permanent replacement, as it had "replacement" written in a number of places on the accompanying documents. It was all so shiny which makes me think it's actually a new unit - nice! In all the emails they sent about returning it, they said that I should not send any of the peripherals such as stylus or cover as they would not be returned. I kept it all and they have given me a stylus with the new unit. Excellent. Knowing me, I'm going to lose the stylus at some point, so having a spare is handy. Now lets see if this new PDA performs like a dream.

I completed and submitted another job application yesterday and so in celebration of that (or perhaps in spite of that ) I have created a Careers section. The only thing there at the moment is my CV. I'm working on putting down all the essay type questions that I've got in these applications as well as the answers I gave. I'm also planning to put up the results of the psychometric test that I took when I went to EXP (when I eventually get the results ). I'm hoping someone will spot them and say "Hey, he sounds good. Lets give him a job!" Wishful thinking, I know. More realistically, I hope that someone will look at them and point out what horribly fatal flaws I am making, because I must be making them, seeing as I haven't even been given an interview yet.

Speaking of work, I meant to give Brook Street a call today about work but my procrastination got the better of me and I thought I would leave it till Monday. They must have been reading my mind as early in the afternoon I got call about a job! It's a drugs awareness charity and they basically want some database/data entry work done. I'm a bit worried by the fact that there may be some phone work involved as well :eek:. Hopefully it's not too much. Apparently it's for the next two weeks, but after what happened last week, I'm not going to take that as a given.

My uncle is still staying with us and it seems like he may be with us for a few more weeks. :sigh: He took me today to his place to pick up some of his clothes. He's not allowed to go in, so I had to go. I was very annoyed at the fact that he put me in such an awkward position, right in the middle. He gave me a long list of places to get his clothes from and then started talking about all his documents and briefcases and stuff which were in certain draws. I was thinking "Fuck you". He should be grateful that I'm even going to get his clothes, but now he wants me to go rummaging around in random draws in a house that I've only ever been to once, in the presence of someone who doesn't want me in the house? Fuck that. The first trip, I was allowed in but I think that was only because I was unexpected. The second trip up, I wasn't even allowed in. The clothes were just handed to me in bags, over the threshold. There is absolutely no fucking way I was going back there for non-essential things like stupid documents. That dumbass is causing us so much hassle and stressing my mum out completely, yet he seems totally oblivious. :sigh:

26/02/2004 11:12 PM

The other day I was worried by the fact that the ID number Palm had given me was coming up as "Not found" in their system despite Royal Mail confirming that it had been delivered. Well it still doesn't show up, but I got two emails from Palm this morning. One confirming receipt and one confirming despatch of a replacement which should arrive within the next couple of days. Woohoo! From this I can only surmise that Palm's tracking system for their customers is complete shit. The emails themselves are still ambiguous though, as it's still not entirely clear whether this is a permanent replacement or an interim replacement.

I went to sign in today for Job Seekers Allowance. It wasn't as painful as I thought, mainly because the act itself was fairly quick and I think the guy was just tired and couldn't be bothered. He got me to sign the piece of paper and just asked me what I had done to look for work. I gave him a few generic lines which while true, gave away no details. He didn't bother asking for any or even trying to get confirmation of what I had said. "Apathy will be our downfall. But who cares?" Heh.

I was really annoyed at this guy who pushed in front of me. The guy at the desk I was supposed to sign in on was on the phone and so I was waiting for him. I was in fact the only person in the queue. Then this guy comes up to me and asks if I'm waiting to sign on at that desk. When I said Yes, he waited near me as well. The desk guy was taking a while on the phone and so my mind wandered. He eventually got off the phone but I didn't even notice it. All I saw was the other guy barge ahead of me to sit at the desk. The fucker. Grrr.

I went in to EXP to get my loan forms stamped and signed and that went fairly uneventfully apart from me writing something really dumb on my cheque. Luckily I noticed it in time and could write out another one. D'Oh! . What makes me laugh about that place is the security guard. He's a nice old man who is always polite and calls me sir. He always asks who I want to see and calls ahead to let them know I am coming, and every time he has always got my name wrong on the phone. It's really funny. It's a different name every time. My two syllable name seems to throw people so much.

I finally finished entering all the notes I made while in Bangladesh, onto the computer. It's only taken me a whole month. Heh. If my PDA hadn't screwed up I wouldn't have been in the situation where I needed to type it all up. I guess now though it means that I can finally start actually writing up what happened. I want to keep a written record of what happened while we were there, so that I will remember it. If I had the facilities, I would have written things up properly as they happened. One of things I thought about when I was there, was keeping an audio journal. I had my MD player which records. All I would have needed was a discreet microphone and plenty of disks. That would have been really great. As with all things though, the good ideas always come when you no way of implementing them. Something to think about and prepare, for the next trip.

Now though, it's really tough because I'm having to do it by memory and after such a long time. Even looking at the notes that I made, there are some things that I have written and I think "What the fuck does that mean?" My new timeslot regime is actually working (hence the completion of this) and so I think I may get around to writing this up. Touch wood.

26/02/2004 12:08 AM

I got the documents back regarding my loan (for the Java course) which has been provisionally approved. Yay! Now I just have to get it signed and stamped by EXP to prove that I will be doing the course. I'll be going in to see them tomorrow and this time I'll have to hand over the £100 cheque.

I was very shocked today to actually get a call from Office Angels! Amazing, I know. It wasn't to offer me a job though. They just wanted to see whether I was still looking for temp work because "we haven't heard from you in a few months". Excuse me? They haven't heard from *me*! I'm the one that's been constantly chasing them up and been promised callbacks numerous times. Now they have the nerve to say that they haven't heard from *me*? The fucking cheek. I only thought about all of this once I hung up, because of course my brain freezes when I get on the phone. I just said that yes, I was still looking for work. When she asked me if I was still looking for work, I had the extremely naive thought that she had a job for me and was just checking to see if I was still available. How stupid of me. She just ended saying that they would keep me on the availables list and give me a call when they find something. Thanks for that totally pointless call.

I was thinking that my "three days, possibly the whole week" job would pay for the electricity bill and my shoes as well as some left over. Now it's barely going to pay for the shoes. :sigh: I also hoped that it would mean that I would miss signing on. It was the shortest job in my life, so I'm going to go sign in tomorrow. What fun. I hope the bastards don't give me too much of a hard time.

Speaking of the electricity bill, it was very strange. The bill for the last quarter was roughly £60 but this quarter's was about £90. What's strange is that for a whole month of this quarter, we were *out of the bloody country* so how could we have used 50% more electricity that we normally do? I've really got to call them and sort it out.

Fauziah fell down the stairs earlier on today. That was rather scary. I heard the noise and I instantly jumped out of my seat and ran down the stairs. It was the first time and it's just been waiting to happen because she goes up the stairs so much. It's only within the past week or two that she has actually been able to climb down. Before she would always climb up and then cry to be brought back down. Luckily she wasn't badly hurt or anything. I think she was scared than anything else. Poor thing.

24/02/2004 4:33 PM

My mum's brother was involved in a domestic last night. One that involved police and him ending up staying here for the week. For obvious reasons, I won't go into what (allegedly) happened, but I have no sympathy for either of the people involved. They both deserve each other. This does mean of course that he is staying in my room and I have to go elsewhere. Where I slept last night actually wasn't as uncomfortable as I thought it would be, but it was awkward this morning getting ready for work.

Last night I was thinking that it would only be my second day of work and he would be seeing me go off to work and think that I was raking it in. This would then lead to more requests for money. But that never happened though, because I am not at work. I was on the bus there when I got a call from the agency telling me that the booking had been cancelled. It was only later on that I had a proper conversation and found out that the company didn't want me because I couldn't do what they had asked. Now what they had asked was actually, as far as I know, not possible. I'm not saying it was impossible, as I don't know every intimate detail of Microsoft Word, but I didn't think it was possible given what I know. I explained this to them on the day and I explained it to the agency as well and they seemed fairly understanding. I was asked to do something and I gave an honest assessment of how technically feasible it was. I could have bullshitted and stretched this out for days, wasting their time and money, but I didn't. What more can you ask for? So that's the shortest job I've ever done - a total of five hours.

I'm worried though that this may reflect badly on me and affect their ability to find me a job. To the outside observer, it seems as though I was dismissed from the job because I wasn't up to it. I was reassured by the agency that this wouldn't reflect on me in any way whatsoever as the company were asking me to do something that was not possible, but I still worry.

Just to be randomly gross, my left foot is all raw around the ankle and I had to put on a paster, just so that I could walk in the new shoes. Surely that's not right?

23/02/2004 11:58 PM

I went for my first day at the new temping job today and I must say that it was overwhelmingly ... anticlimactic. No one seemed to have any idea why I was there or what I was supposed to be doing. The agency told me I was going to be meeting someone called Marissa who dealt with temps. I never saw her once. I was met and taken in by a PA who told me I would be working for some guy called David something. I never met him either. I did do a little bit of work for a Jean something but not much. When this work eventually got to me it was about 12pm. Up until then I had just been sat there, twiddling my thumbs. I couldn't really make idle conversation with anyone as they were too far away from me and would have required raising my voice. I was working at a fair pace until I finished the first piece at about three. The next piece had very little work needed on it and I think it was only given to me so that I wasn't just sitting on my arse. I made that last for the next two hours and it was *dull*.

The PA was nice and helpful and didn't get annoyed at my questions, but she wasn't really able to answer some of the key questions that I had. Not really surprising seeing as I wasn't working for her or her manager. When I told her that the agency said I would be there at least three days, she was shocked as she thought it would only be today. Nice contradictory signals I was getting from everyone. At the end of the day I asked whether I should be coming in the next day, and of course, she didn't know. Just to be on the safe side, I got my timesheet signed off as they're supposed to be signed off at the end of the week or the end of the job. As far as I knew, this was the end of the job.

The agency was just around the corner so I went and asked them what exactly was going on. A call was made and it seems that I will be going in tomorrow at 10. Not 9, just in case there is no-one around to give me any work. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.

My sister works in the vicinity of the agency and the job and so I decided to go home with her. After endless unanswered phone calls, swearing in the street and freezing cold weather, she eventually answered the phone and we were on our way. It was nice, but we were both too tired to have much of a conversation. Still good though.

One reason for the tiredness was the fact that I was wearing my new pair of super-shiny black work shoes. How do people wear these things? My feet were killing me. I can't wait to get back into my normal shoes. I'm going to dress up for one more day, because there is the chance that I may actually meet the people that I'm supposed to be working for. After that though, I'm dressing more casually. Assuming of course they want me for any other days.

I checked up on my Palm today and according to Royal Mail's website, it was delivered at roughly 9am this morning which is great. It seems that Palm haven't started putting it through their tracking system yet though as it comes up as "number doesn't exist". I miss my PDA. I haven't had it for that long, but not having it is hard. I want my toy back. :sigh:

22/02/2004 1:25 PM

Although I'm happy about the job on Monday, I am actually quite nervous about it. They've taken me on face value based on the results of the Word tests I did at the agency, but what if I can't do what they want me to do? In other words, what if the agency have oversold me? What if I have a horrible time there? What if they treat like "a temp", i.e. like crap? I guess it's just first day nerves. I always get nervous whenever I'm starting something new. I guess that's what it's going to be like with all the temp jobs I do. There's the possibility that every week it'll be "the first day". At the end of this I'll either be a nervous wreck or have absolutely no fears about the first day. Knowing me, it'll be the former rather than the latter.

Everyone in the house went out yesterday to a cousins house, leaving me by myself as per usual. They didn't get back until past ten in the evening and in all that time I did absolutely *nothing* of any importance. I spent all the time either surfing or watching episodes of Jeremiah. Now I know that it was Saturday, so it's probably OK that I was relaxing, but I know for a fact that there are so many things that I need to get on with, that I could have easily done, especially considering that there was no-one around to interrupt me. My procrastination and lethargy working overtime again. When I'm at the computer it's so easy for me to get distracted and move on from one thing to another and then suddenly hours have passed. I look back and think "What the hell have I actually achieved?"

So because I have such a long list of things that need doing, today I'm going back to a system that I know has worked in the past. I'm allocating half an hour slots to each of the tasks. That way I know at what time I should be focusing on a particular thing and can do it without distraction. It sounds completely anal of me, I know, but it's the only way I can discipline myself and actually get anything done. The only bad thing about this method is that it only works for a few days. After that I get back into the lethargy and the times start slipping until eventually I only end up doing one or two things on my long task list. It's my curse - just too damn lazy!

Something that I forgot to mention before was that on Friday I sent off my PDA for repairs. Hooray! It was wrapped up in bubble wrap and then stuffed in a padded envelope but I still worry about it getting damaged. I also worry about it getting lost, despite the fact that I sent it recorded delivery. Royal Mail isn't what it used to be. :sigh:

I'm confused about some of the information that Palm gave me. It seems as though they will be giving me a PDA to use in the interim but I'm not sure. It's very ambiguous. I think I wold probably prefer that they didn't give me one, as I would then have to go through the hassle of returning it to them. I hope they can fix my poor sick PDA quickly. I would prefer that they fixed mine rather than just give me a reconditioned unit but I guess I just have to wait and see.

21/02/2004 12:17 AM

The good times just keep on rolling. But of course, with the good comes the bad ...

I went on Wednesday to complete my registration for Job Seeker's Allowance. That was one of the most demoralising experiences of my life. I was basically treated like I was pond scum and made to feel like an idiot for not knowing all their policies. When the (rude) woman was entering my details, she asked me what newspapers I was looking in to find jobs. When I tried to explain to her that I wasn't actually looking in any papers, she cut me off and said "So what papers *will* you be looking at?" meaning that she didn't give a damn what I had done so far - I *would* look in papers now. When she was putting my qualifications in, she missed out some of them, making me look like I was less qualified than I am and ignored me when I commented. When she asked me what kind of work I was looking for and I said Software Engineering, she looked at me completely blankly and eventually said "Is that working with computers?" and promptly wrote down "IT". This information was printed out onto a standard form, but she also typed in some other stuff which she never asked me about or even mentioned. Some of the stuff she wrote was that I would write to at least two employers a week, phone at least two, visit at least two, contact the job centre at least twice a week and so on. No discussions at all about what I was currently doing and how it was going. I was given a book in which I was to record daily all the things that I did, in terms of job searching. She didn't even explain to me how the signing in thing worked. I had to specifically ask her when to do it. It seemed she just wanted to finish with me, process me as quickly as possible. It was not fun at all. Putting it in writing, it may not sound all that bad, but you had to be there. She was making me feel so worthless and insignificant. I also spent a long time digging out all the relevant documentation needed as proof, as requested in the forms I filled in. She didn't ask for any of it. What a fucking waste of time. All this hassle for a mere £40-ish a week. :sigh:

Enough of that shit. I went to register at Brook Street and Adecco on Thursday and I have to say, I think it went really well. At both places I was given Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Access tests. At Brook Street, the woman said that I had the highest results she had ever seen! The cynic in me thinks it's not the case and that I am somehow being manipulated in some way. The non-cynic in me points out that all the test results were above the 90% mark and she even called her colleague over to look at them, so it might be true. Who knows. When I first got there, she directed me to where I would enter my information, and told me she wanted to talk to me about a six month position. I was dead impressed by this. I hadn't even registered yet and she had already been looking into work for me. Nice! When we got to the interview portion though, she told me that having seen my results and spoken to me, she thought the job would bore the shit out of me as it was just scanning documents for an insurance company. I'm glad that she said no to the job first, as I wouldn't have been able to take it anyway, if I'm going to be starting the EXP course in May.

All the interview stuff went well and the last time we spoke on the phone she said that she would make some calls with me there and she actually did! Once more with the impressed. She sang my praises to the people she called but unfortunately they didn't have anything at the moment. However ... no, wait. I'll save the best till last.

So that was the end of that, and move on to the next place. It was really amusing how it all worked out. They were both on the same day and both within twenty minutes walk of each other! Saved me having to spend on transport as well as wearing "formal" clothes on more than one day. *shudder*

Adecco was more of the same. I had to act like I had never done this kind of thing before. I was kind of bored though, so my enthusiasm level may not have been as high as I would have liked. I think having people walk in off the streets was a little offputting as well. Adecco was on the main road and advertised jobs in the windows whereas Brook Street was a floor of an office building. As with Brook Street, it went well here. More of the testing and "ooh your results are so high" and so on. There wasn't really anything remarkable about the place or situation for me to comment on, apart from the fact that I bitched about Office Angels. When I talked about how they never called me back, she got this look on her face and I'm sure she was thinking "Mental note: Call him back!" Heh.

So that brings today (Friday). I got a call from Brook Street and ... they've got a job for me! I start on Monday. It's only three days, possibly five, but it's a start! The Job Centre centre put me through all that shit for £40-ish pounds for the entire week, and I will be making more than that in one day of work. I can't wait to tell those people that they can keep their £40 and piss off.

Even if it is only three days, it will mean that I can pay off the electricity bill that just arrived as well as the new work shoes I bought. Yay!

Office Angels could learn a thing or two. I joined them in November. I called them nearly every week to find out what was going on. They always promised to call back. They never did. They have yet to offer me a single temping position. Brook Street on the other hand tried on the day of registration and then got me work *the next day*. Guess who I will be recommending to other people?

I'm going to work on Monday! *lalalala*

18/02/2004 12:44 AM

I went to the job centre on Monday and it was fairly embarrassing. Apart from the just being there, when I told the woman at the reception desk that I had come to register for "Unemployment Benefit" she gave me this dirty look as if I had said something completely heinous and said "It's called 'Job Seeker's Allowance' now". D'Oh! I don't even know the name of the thing. What a bad start. After filling in a form they gave me ... some more forms to fill in - a big pack in fact. The next embarrassing thing then came when the woman asked me if I was "making a single claim". I kind of umm-ed and ahh-ed and said that I didn't really know what she meant. She looked at me like I was a moron and asked if I was just claiming for myself. In my defence, that "single" could have meant marital status or a single claim. I don't know how the hell the place works so either was a possibility.

Anyway, I went in for an ID check today (Tuesday) and that went smoothly apart from the long wait. I thought that today would include the interview, but apparently not. I have to go in tomorrow for it. This week is a very busy week for me. I've got appointments every day of the week except for Friday. Its been months since I have had such a full week!

I went to EXP again today to sort out the loan application form. That was fairly straightforward as well. It's all filled in and all I have to do is send it off. Apparently they'll respond within five working days, after which I go back to EXP to get paperwork done on their end. It seems I'm going deeper and deeper down the training path. Is it something that I wan to do? I'm 90% sure but it's the 10% that will surely be my downfall. When I spoke to them on the phone yesterday, they were talking about me bringing along my £100 deposit to secure my place. I took along my cheque book with dread. Putting the money down would be taking a major step down this particular path, one that will more greatly invest me in the situation, both financially and psychologically. Luckily the fact that I had so little in my account, meant that there was a danger the check would bounce. I got a reprieve for a week while I put some more money in.

Something completely random that I found out while there was that the woman I spoke to, Victoria, has a relative (parent? grandparent? I forget which) who is Bengali. I don't know whether or not she was pulling my leg because she is completely white. If it's the truth though, there is the tiny glimmering chance that we may be related via my grandad (my mum's father) but that's an extremely remote possibility. It's also a story that I won't go into now for brevity's sake, but I will later on if someone wants me to. *cough*Feedback Link*cough*

I was in contact with Adecco and Brook Street yesterday and today. I've got registration appointments with both of them on Thursday. Excellent! When I spoke to the Brook Street woman, she was nice as ever and she even said that when I go to register, she will phone around to try and get me work on the day, while I am there. My cynical side says that either that's bullshit, or nothing will come of it. It doesn't matter. It's all good.

The Adecco woman was quite a surprise. The last two or three times I spoke to her she was actually fairly pleasant. When she made the appointment with me today, she was recapping what price range I was looking for and what my bare minimum was. When I told her, she was like "we'll never put you on anything that low, with your skills". The first time I spoke to her she was more like "What skills you got? We ain't got no jobs for that stuff. *hangs up*". I guess that either she was just having a bad day that day or after seeing my CV, she realised that she could make a commission off me. Heh.

Both of those are on Thursday and they are more or less around the corner from each other but there's going to be at least a two hour gap between them. How am I going to kill all that time!

In yet another piece of good news, Palm have learned to read and realised that my PDA is actually very sick and it's not the case that I'm a stupid (l)user who doesn't know where the power switch is. They think it needs repair or exchange. I've given them the information they asked for and am waiting for them to tell me where to send it to. Yay!

My niece has started to do the cutest thing! My brother wrapped up one of her teddies in a little towel and now she carries it around like a little baby. She even has a name for it - Mimi. It's really cute. If you hide it and ask her where Mimi is, she'll look around the room, even lifting up her toys to look under them. If you say you want to give Mimi a kiss, she'll bring it up towards your lips. Today she was eating some orange and I told her Mimi wanted some and she tried to feed it! Not only is this great because of the cuteness/hilarity factor, it also shows that she has reached a level of awareness that she has never had before. She can me an annoying little monster at times but I love her to bits and she amazes me every day will all the little things she does.

For the first time in a very long time, I'm actually feeling positive today. Good things are happening from every direction. You know of course that means I'm going to get run over tomorrow! Better enjoy it while I can. *happy happy lalala*

16/02/2004 1:03 AM

I sent a message off to Palm on Wednesday about my PDA, using their web based form. According to the blurb, "Palm will normally respond in 1 working day". They responded in two but I suppose I should be happy that they responded at all. I told them a list of all the symptoms and also gave them a list of what I had tried, to try and resolve the problems. I thought I gave them a fairly thorough report but it seems it was a waste of time. When I got the response it seemed like an automated response and it basically amounted to "Do a hard reset" ie. wipe the machine and reinitialise it. Sure there were lots of detailed instructions and other superfluous text, but that's what it amounted to. The problem with this advice is that I had already tried that, and it was one of things I listed *in the original message*. I pointed this out in the response I sent. The fact that I have been told to do this means either the response is totally automated, or the person dealing with my message either a) couldn't be bothered to read it or b) was just plain stupid. None of those scenarios make me happy. I am yet to receive any form of further correspondence. I'm trying to figure out how to actually go about getting a replacement unit seeing as it is still in the warranty period, but the Palm website seems to be very ambiguous about this. Typical.

I went to do the tests at EXP on Thursday and I think that it actually went pretty well. I was under the impression that I would only be there for half an hour so I asked Raania if she wanted to meet me afterwards. It's lucky that she wasn't able to because I was there for three and a half hours! I guess I should have learned by now that when it comes to EXP I should forget about trying to time anything.

So there were two tests - an aptitude test and a psychometric test. The aptitude test was a mock Sun certification exam that they use for training and preparation for the actual exam. I found this quite hard because firstly I had never done such an exam before but also because of the tricky language used in the question and answers. It would have been easy to skim through a question and skip a key point and thereby answering a question which wasn't actually asked. I had 80 minutes to do it but finished ten minutes before because it was just doing my head in. I got 60% which according to the screen was a fail because the pass rate was 86%. I was slightly disappointed at this because I was hoping that I would have got higher. It did however highlight the particular areas where my Java skills were lacking. Later on though, they told me that they actually set the pass rate on the mock test artificially high and that the pass rate in the real Sun exam is around the 60% mark. This of course made me very happy. I haven't checked with Sun's website though, to confirm it.

So, aptitude test passed. They liked what they saw. Then came the psychometric test which was much shorter and easier to handle. Again, I have never done one of these tests before so I was interested to see what it would show about me. The test itself was all about what my preferences are. Each "question" would list three things and I had to pick which I preferred the most, which the least and leave one blank. Sounds simple enough, but there were some that really made me think. There were easy ones like "live in an apartment in a major city/live in the suburbs of a town/live in the countryside" that were quick because of their separate nature. The one that I spent the most time on though was "spend time doing an activity that interests you/an activity that helps others/strike a balance between your own interests and helping others". Suddenly it's not so black and white. I put the balance one for most preferred but then which do I put for least? What if helping others *is* an activity I enjoy? I don't remember which I picked. All I know is that it took a while.

So what were the results like? At the machine I was sat at, it would only give me the first sentence of each paragraph. The full report would apparently be emailed to the guy running the test. What little I did see though was quite impressive. Almost all the things it said about me were spot on. They were also (apparently) the kinds of qualities that were ideal for software engineering type roles and I was therefore a good candidate for the course. I was supposed to get the report emailed to me on Friday, but I guess I can give them a gentle nudge on Monday. It will be interesting to see what it has to say.

If anyone is interested, I think the test that I did is this one, though I can't be completely certain.

I called both Adecco and Brook Street on Friday to check that they had received my CVs. The Brook Street woman was nice as ever but said that she was snowed under catching up with what she missed while away and so asked if I didn't mind calling back on Monday. She asked nicely (as a "favour") so fine. Why not. The Adecco woman was a different story. She was on holiday. When I called her earlier on in the week I told her that I would be calling back to confirm receipt and the rude cow didn't mention she wouldn't be in the office. She's back on Monday So I'll have to call her then as well. Dates just keep getting pushed back more and more. *sigh*

Today (Monday) my mum, my brother and myself plan on going to the hospital to get some blood tests done. I've been trying to arrange it since we got back from Bangladesh but it's always been a problem, especially because of my brother being in school. I didn't want to pull him out of school after he has already had so much time off. Luckily it's half term now so that isn't a worry.

While out tomorrow I want to kill as many birds with one stone as I can. I'm going to be doing something that I have put off doing for a very long time - signing up for unemployment benefit (or whatever the damn hell it's called) aka "The Dole" . The very idea of it brings an unpleasant feel to my stomach. I have a vague idea of where I should be going but absolutely no idea of what I should be saying or doing. Hell, I don't even know what the thing is *called* so I'm going to look like a right dumbass. Logically I'm sure I'm perfectly entitled to the money seeing as I *have* worked for a while and paid my taxes but I still don't like it because not only does it feel like I'm scrounging off the state, it's seems like an indication that I have given up. I haven't given up (I think) but beggars can't be choosers.

12/02/2004 12:48 AM

I called Adecco on Tuesday and the woman I spoke to was actually quite rude. I wanted to find out if they had received my CV or not, considering all the problems I was having with the emails. As I mentioned earlier, I kept getting delivery failures with the address I was given. The email contained a name so I sent it direct to that name. There was no delivery failure so I assumed that it worked. Apparently they haven't had a person by that name work there for a very long time. If that is the case, why the hell does her name appear in the delivery failure messages? Anyway, the woman gave me an address to send it to. I was supposed to check up on them today but I never got around to it.

Before she told me the address, she asked me what experience I had. That's a question I have been asked on the phone before, and it's a difficult one. If I were advertising myself as a software engineer, I would know what exactly to say. I would list the projects I have done, the languages I know, the methodologies I know and so on. When it comes to advertising myself as a general admin person, what exactly do I say? The first time I was asked that was the first time I called Brook Street. It was unexpected so I turned into a gibbering idiot. This time I decided to say some of the things I had done at the Hellhole, such as producing and delivering training, supervising people and so on. She said that they didn't have any jobs for what I had experience in, and was going to hang up. I managed to convince her that I was just looking for general bog standard admin work. I'm flexible and not fussy. She eventually gave me the relevant address to send the CV to but I think it was just to get me off her back. That was not a nice experience.

I had to also call Brook Street and was dreading it, especially after the Adecco call. Luckily the woman I spoke to was actually very nice. She had received my CV and was concerned that I lived so far away that it might take me too long to go to any jobs they had. She recommended two other branches which were closer to me. That was nice of her. She also told me the state of admin jobs at the moment - it's very quiet. She also said that the chances of me being picked for work in that area was low because they had people registered who had a lot more admin experience than me and lived closer. Fair enough. To finish off, she said that if I had any more problems or questions, she'd be happy for me to call her. Wow. Speaking to actual helpful human beings. Will wonders never cease. She gave me bad news, gave me information to help solve the problem and then offered further help as needed. Do such people even exist anymore?

To answer that question, yes they do - at Brook Street. I phoned the Fenchurch Street branch and again spoke to a lovely woman. She asked about experience as well and this time round I went down the generic word processing, spreadsheets, databases route. She then guided me by asking for specifics and she seemed happy with what I said. If only could remember what I talked about! She asked the usual "why only temping?" and I did the whole "looking for a perm job" thing. She asked me what kind of permanent job I was looking for and when I said Software Engineering she chuckled and said that temping was definitely the way to go then. She actually chuckled! Human being who aren't bitter and twisted. Sheer bliss!

After some more conversation she gave me her email address. When I pointed out that the CV was geared towards Software Engineering and not admin she said she understood and that it was perfectly fine. Something else that was unique was that she told me she was away for the next two days and that she would try and contact me that evening but if not, when she got back. Amazing. She's giving me more information so that I don't waste my time calling when she is away. I haven't even registered with them yet, but Brook Street is the only agency that I have had a positive experience with, so far. Fingers crossed that they can get me a job!

Something that's quite worrying is the fact that the two new agencies that I have spoken to have both said to me that temp admin work is very quiet at the moment.

I spent some time this morning sorting through some of my emails. I have over 800 in my Inbox! It took me a very long time because I kept getting distracted by actually reading them and they reminded of all the wonderful conversations I've had with people in the past. The majority of them were while I was at the Hellhole. We were all so friendly and so close. Reading the emails made me very nostalgic. That kind of closeness was not something that existed during my MSc. Sure we spent a lot of time together, but it just wasn't the same kind of thing. I wonder, when (if!) I get another job, I will have that kind of thing again.

One of the emails that I thought was really wonderful was a conversation between myself and Raania during the period when I had left the Hellhole and she was still working there. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read covering topics such as life, love and the transience of text messages. I thought it was so great that I decided to forward it to her as a piece of nostalgia. I haven't contacted her in ages so it was a good excuse. Later on in the evening she phoned me and we had a long chat which was nice.

I've got to go back to EXP Solutions tomorrow. Sadly not for yet another *FREE* (heh!) seminar but for psychometric and aptitude tests to see whether or not I am capable of doing the course. If Raania can swing it, we may meet up, but it doesn't seem likely.

Speaking of EXP, I spoke to my sister about it today. She generally seems happy with the information I have given about the course. She also reinforced my confidence by telling me of two people she knows who went on training courses that ended in jobs. The only thing she was wary about, understandably, was the cost. I may be getting ahead of myself though. Lets wait and see what the results of the tests are!

10/02/2004 12:26 AM

My uncle came around today. Again. Luckily he didn't want anything from me so he didn't bother me. When we sat down to have lunch though, he asked me whether I had any money. It wasn't in a "Do you have any money cos I can give you some if you need any" kind of way. It was a "Do you have any money that you can give me?" kind of way. In that instant I just exploded at him telling him that I didn't have any money and that it basically pissed me off that he kept asking us. I then left the room and ate by myself, just in case I said any more that I might regret.

It was very strange because it's not like he was annoying me all lunch and building up my anger. It was just a couple of words and then bang! I was off. Not like me at all. How strange. I guess my stressing about money recently was just vented at him.

I found out from my mum later on that he was actually upset at me for shouting at him. Good. Maybe now he'll stop fucking asking us for money which we don't have. He knows that I'm out of work and have been, for a long time. Yet he thinks that I somehow have money for both myself *and* him. If I had the money and he needed it, I would gladly him some. I did it in the past for other relatives, while I was working. He just needs to get it through his thick skull that I can't, *right now*.

To continue with the unpleasantness, my brother was attacked and had his money taken from him on his way home from school. Physically it was nothing much, but psychologically is another story. One of the major factors of him being moved from his old school was because he was attacked by another pupil. The school was shit as well and he was generally unhappy there, but the attack was the straw that broke the camel's back. Now it has happened again. This can't be doing much for his confidence. I really don't want him to lack confidence in the way that I do, but I see him slowly heading in that direction.

He was being hassled all the way between the bus stop and the house and his money was taken in an alley halfway between. Once the guy got the money, he was still hassling my brother. The strange thing is that when they got to our street he saw one of my neighbours kids who he apparently knows, threw the money at my brother, shouted something at my mum (I wasn't there so I didn't hear) and then left. I can only assume that he returned the money because he knew that my neighbours kid knew where he lived and would probably give him shit for hassling my brother. Or maybe he was just hoping to hit my brother with the money. Who knows.

My brother was coming home with his friend and they were both hassled so I guess "safety in numbers" is no longer valid. What's really upsetting is that the other kid got beaten up quite badly. According to my brother, the guy was punched, strangled and kicked in the groin before eventually running away. My brother is really worried about him.

It's incidents like these that really make me want to move out of this fucking borough. It truly is the armpit of London, filled with fucking little bastards. Both these boys are only twelve years old for fucks sake. Just leave them alone!

Later on though, my mum went across to the neighbours house to tell them what happened. Apparently the moment the kid heard what happened he went to the little bastards house and dragged him around to our house to apologise. It turns out that my brother's friend and the little bastard are cousins and that he was only joking with them. What the fucking fuck? Kicking someone in the groin, strangling them, punching them, stealing their money, that's supposed to be a *JOKE*? Some joke. I wonder if he even realised what complete bullshit was coming out his fucking mouth. Also, what kind of a way is that to treat your family? We've been brought up to respect our families. I know that even though some of our relatives have done some bad things to us (intentionally or otherwise) they are still our family at the end of the day and can be relied upon in an emergency. Doing something like that to a cousin just seems completely alien to me.

I came down and found my sister in mid rant at the little fucker on our doorstep. He apologised a number of times but there seemed to be no sincerity in his voice. I don't think he was sorry for what he did. I think he was sorry for getting caught.

The funny thing is that this kind of thing never happened to me or my sister when we went to school. Either times have changed or we've completely repressed the memories.

Fuck these pieces of shit walking our streets. I hope they all die painful deaths.

09/02/2004 12:35 AM

My uncle (my mum's youngest brother) came to our house on Friday. He obviously wanted something. He only ever comes to see us when he wants something. This time he wanted some help with some letters that had been written for him by his solicitor. One of the letters had an error in it and he wanted me to correct it. When asked why his solicitor couldn't correct it, he said that his solicitor is in Newcastle (the fuck?) and he needed these letters to be sent to Bangladesh on Monday. Fine, I guess, so I did it. He didn't of course give me an electronic copy. That would have been too easy. Instead I had to retype the entire first page of the letter to correct one word. It was a key word, but one word nonetheless. It was only a ten minute job though, so not the end of the world.

But he came back again yesterday. There was another letter that his solicitor hadn't given him at all. It was a variation on the other letter, but geared towards a different person. He didn't have all the details for this other person - the solicitor did. He had organised for the solicitor to call me and give me the details over the phone so that I could type up the entire two page letter. At this point I was annoyed. What the fuck was going on here? What exactly was he paying this incompetent solicitor for? I didn't mind spending ten minutes doing the first letter, but now he wanted me to liaise with the solicitor as well as do some of the solicitors work. Why exactly had *I* been picked for this? Why the fuck couldn't he do it himself? It's not like he doesn't have a computer. He does. My computer. I gave him my first computer as well as a printer and office software. (Going on a tangent, he never ever gave me any money for them either, despite many promises, but that's a whole other rant).

What was really funny was the fact that when he was leaving, my sister was having a go at him for making me do this. She was telling him that he should take the money that he gives the solicitor and give it to me, seeing as I'm out of a job. Hee! Fat chance of that though. You can't get money out of that man. You're more likely to find him asking *us* for money. Apparently his reaction to what she said, basically amounted to "So why doesn't he get a job then?" Dumbass.

And speaking of that thing that makes the world go around, I got two letters from my the bank the other day. My card was destroyed in front of me on Monday and a new one was ordered. So that's what was in the letters. Yes, both of them. They had sent me *two* fucking cards. If they were identical (apart from the number) it would be fairly problematic in itself, but they are totally different cards! According to the accompanying booklets, one is a "Cash card" and the other is a "Service Card". Say it with me now: the fuck? At first glance it was hard to tell what the differences were. Were they complementary? Were they identical? Was one a subset of the other? It was only after I read through both booklets thoroughly that I think I got what the difference was. One has slightly more (and slightly different) features. As a side note, that one looks nicer as well . What this means though, is that I will have to go to the bank *again* to try and sort out what's what. Why can nothing ever be simple? Imagine if I had been working full time. How the fuck would I have been able to take the time off to sort all this shit out, especially considering the fucking bank isn't open at the weekends. Fuckers.

In a slightly more amusing matter, I got the most hilarious phone call last night. The phone was ringing at 1.20 AM (yes, AM!) as I was preparing to go to sleep and I was wondering who the fuck would be calling me at that hour. I looked and it was my friend Sal. I thought about not picking up, but I picked up anyway. There was a drunk Sal on the other end. How do I know she was drunk? One: she would never call me at that time of night, especially as she knows how I feel about phones. Two: She didn't say hello, but immediately started singing Smashmouth's "Allstar". Hee!

I listened for a while, wondering whether I should just hang up and save her the money and the embarrassment. Instead, I hung on to see how long she could keep it up. She seemed to go on for ages, even going back to correct mistakes she had made. In all this time she didn't once even stop to check whether I was still listening or even there. I was just pissing myself laughing, wondering when would be the best moment to interrupt. Luckily she stopped and then began the drunken stream of consciousness rambling. The individual parts were actually very coherent - it's just that she seemed to jump from topic to topic.

She was at a party that she was supposed to go to with Jen, but Jen chickened out. Loads of guys kept coming on to her and she had to keep telling them she had a boyfriend. She apologised to me for waking me up at that hour and proceeded to carry on talking. She said she read *all* of what I had written here (what a waste of her time!) and loved it. She asked me if I had sorted out my money problems with Natwest (What's scary here is that I never ever mentioned that my money problems were with Natwest other than in this sentence right now. So how did she know? *puts on tin foil hat*). She asked me whether I was allright. I suspect that was triggered by the fairly depressing last entry. She said that she missed talking to me and stuff. Note that the last two may have just been the alcohol talking. Note also that some of the above topics were repeated a number of times.

I would have actually liked to have listened to her ramble on for a bit. She may or may not have been serious about missing me, but I know that I certainly miss her. It's been such a long time since we met up. Whenever we are going to meet in person, I always get anxious that it's going to be awkward somehow, yet the moment we meet up, for me everything slips into a familiarity and comfortableness that I have with very few people. It's the same thing whether it's meeting in person, talking via email or even over IM. Am I sound weird or stalkerish yet? No? In that case, I know where you live, Sal. I'm watching your house. I'm going through your bins, *right now*. Mwuhahah!

Um, anyway. So I wanted to listen a little longer, but I was having to talk loudly for her to hear me, and I didn't want to wake anyone up. I suggested that she hang up so that she doesn't waste her phone bill. She turned around and said that she was using her free minutes. D'Oh! Subtle wasn't working then. I tried again, saying that I was getting ready for bed. After apologising again for waking me up (what?) she got the hint and said good bye. I haven't laughed so much in ages!

I guess this teaches me a lesson. No more depressing entries, or I'll get late night drunken calls. If you're reading this Sal, don't be offended. You know I love you.

06/02/2004 12:11 AM

I spent most of yesterday trying to deal with the evil known as Microsoft proprietary formats. I was trying to convert some email from the PST format used by Outlook to the open MBOX standard for use with Thunderbird. It was a nightmare. My searches on the web came up with two possible solutions which were simple enough to carry out, but both had problems, making them effectively useless. In the end I did it in a convoluted way that was still not ideal but I guess it'll have to do. Damn MS and their undocumented proprietary formats.

I also made several more calls to Office Angels in a last ditch attempt to get some information. Suffice it to say, it was pointless. I then sent an email to my contact telling her of my concerns. She sent the following response earlier today (spelling and grammar errors left intact):

 Sorry you have felt that you have not been getting the feedback you
wanted. At present the temp desk are very quiet so there is no news to
report on . Your are on the available board so when something comes in i
will call

A half hearted apology and what basically amounts to "We'll call you" again. Reading between the lines, I can see that each branch only holds information for their own catchment area. The reason why I think this, is the comment about the temp desk being very quiet. If they had information about the whole of London, this wouldn't be the case. I'm sure there is some sort of commission system at work here, so it's better if she puts me in a job rather than passing me on to one of her colleagues in another London area who may have work. This is not in *my* best interests though. I responded to the email immediately and asked her about the catchment area thing and whether it would be worthwhile for me to contact another branch. I predict that she will say no to the latter.

The temp work front is not going well for me at all. I have been tried to send my CV to Adecco several times over the last two days or so but I keep getting delivery failures with the following response from the Adecco mail servers:

Your message

  Subject: Temporary Office Work Required

was not delivered to:

  [removed]@Adecco.co.uk

because:

  Router: Warning: database disk quota exceeded

I have removed the reference to a particular persons name from the above. This person must be an alias for the address that I was given. These failures are not being caused by an incorrect address, as the response is clearly coming from them, and has a specific error message. Will I have to resort to sending them a CV by post or something? The quota exceeded message made me wonder whether this may be a temporary issue caused by the current MyDoom/Novarg/whatever outbreak. Who knows. Anyway, today I tried a different tactic - I sent the email directly to the address that is in their response. I have not had a delivery failure yet (touch wood). Assuming I don't get one, I will contact them either tomorrow or Monday so they can confirm receipt of it.

I also contacted Brook Street today. The only reason I was able to add them to my list of agencies was because I happened to walk past them while shopping in Wood Green a couple of months ago! When I called the other two agencies about registering, they just told me that I should send in a CV and that was it. At this one though, the guy told me to send a CV but he also asked me why I was looking for just temp work as well as what kind of experience I had. In case no-one has noticed, I'm completely shit on the phone, especially when things are random and unexpected. I promptly turned into a stuttering, stumbling, gibbering idiot and my heart was racing by the end of the call. He must have thought I was a complete moron. What makes me look even more stupid is that I sent off the email without attaching the CV. D'Oh! At least I noticed it immediately and sent a correct one, but still.

I logged into the online banking system again today and there was another unknown card transaction, this one with Tuesday's date. My initial reaction was "WTF? The card was cancelled and destroyed in front of eyes yet there is another card payment." When I got to the bank though, I found out that it was the errant fifth transaction that didn't show up on Monday. I don't get that. If a payment is taking time to clear, why should it disappear from the transaction list rather than just staying there with a Pending on it? I mean that's what happened initially when I saw all five of them, so why the disappearing act? Anyway, I was lucky that they didn't ask me to go to the police station to get yet another crime reference number. Apparently the stuff had been faxed of to the fraud department (I would think so - it's been three days) and so she just made a note against my record, telling me that the fraud people would look there. Let's hope so. This brings the total missing back up to £180 which is actually more than the current balance.

Just to make myself even more depressed I had a look through a couple of IT job websites using the search terms "graduate AND java" just so that I could filter out all the "100 years experience, Senior Manager, £10 billion a year" jobs. There were plenty of entries yet the majority of them required at least one years industrial experience. These are supposed to be graduate positions. How the fuck is a graduate supposed to get one years experience if all the jobs require experience? Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! It reminds me of that recursion joke: if you look in the dictionary for the word recursion, it'll say "See recursion". *sigh*. It makes me wonder how any of these positions ever get filled.

All this no job no money stuff is really starting to depress me. I've never had to worry so much about money before. I don't mean that we are/were well off or anything like that. On the contrary, we've always been dirt poor. It's just that before the money worries were always someone else's responsibilities. Now that I'm paying all the bills and am older and so on, I'm responsible and it makes me feel so helpless. It's starting to really weigh down on me.

05/02/2004 12:07 AM

I went to that seminar yesterday and as before, it was interesting. This time it was split into two parts. The first part dealt with the generic stuff and introduction to Java and the various associated technologies used in industry. The second part was about the Java course itself, as well as reasons why we should do the course. The talk about the course was expected, but it wasn't hard sell. In fact, they didn't even give details about when the next session started or how we should go about applying, if we wanted to do it. It seemed to be case of "Here's what we do. If you want to do it, fine. If not, that's fine as well" which was good. I did of course ask those questions afterwards and they were very open and honest about things.

I may have mentioned before that looking at the road map they gave, that I was quite interested in it. After having heard what was said by the speakers, as well as the answers to my numerous questions, I'm even more interested in it. The layout of the course seems very logical and makes sense both in terms of technological progression as well as time management and so forth. I went and spoke to both the speakers afterwards for at least half an hour or so to get more information. So how much does the course cost then? £4995 - a figure that's a lot higher than I thought it would be. It's certainly a lot more than I can afford right now. Apparently though, there is a loan that can be taken out that they can help sort out. Unfortunately I stupidly left the literature behind (memory like a sieve!) but if I recall correctly, the maximum amount that can be taken out is £8000 which would probably cover both the course and living expenses during the period of the course. According to the verbal information, no interest would build while on the course. If it were just a bog standard course, I might have been deterred, but what keeps me interested is the fact that they provide (or at least attempt to provide) work placements at the end of the course. Of course you can never *guarantee* that you will put someone in a job by the end, but it looks hopeful.

One of the other seminar attendees was with me, asking questions afterwards. He brought up the issue of guarantees of work places. He wanted to know whether they would refund his money if they couldn't place him in work. They of course said no. At the time I thought that was rather naive of him, but later on I realised it was a legitimate concern. If after spending all that money and time, you still aren't in a job, you're basically back to square one. Admittedly you have some new skills, but still at square one. All that time could have been spent looking for jobs.

We spent some time talking inside the building. Then we spent more time talking outside the building, as one of them went for a fag break. We must have *really* been getting on their nerves, not leaving them alone. There were several times when I actually was ready to leave, but the other guy kept asking more questions. I couldn't then leave just in case I missed something important.

We did eventually leave but then stood talking on the street for another half and hour while being accosted by tourists intermittently. It was during this time that he brought up an issue that never even occurred to my trusting naive mind: the legitimacy of the organisation. How do any of us know they are who they say are? They want the money upfront with no chance of money back, so how do we know they won't just take the money and screw us? I might be a poor judge of character, but I think that's a little too paranoid. They seem totally credible to me. Either that or they're extremely good bullshitters with a lot of technical knowledge. There's also the fact that they (claim they) won't take just anybody who can write a cheque. They have aptitude tests and psychometric tests that they need you to pass. They also only take eight students per session. What would be really good would be to talk to an ex-student to get their feedback. I have no idea where I would find such a person though.

All in all I'm still interested, despite some of the fears. It's certainly something I will have to think about and discuss with my family as any decision I make will ultimately affect them.

As with last time, there were a number of additional interesting/amusing things that happened. While I was in Bangladesh, I got an email from one of the EXP speakers via the feedback form. I have absolutely *no* idea how he stumbled across these pages, but he read what I had said about the last seminar and thanked me for the honest feedback. With regards to my needing to take a leak, he made a joke that perhaps he should give people more breaks. Well this time round there were at least three coffee breaks. Hee! I remember another incident like this. At the end of the first semester of the MSc, we were all encouraged to give feedback on the lecturers and the modules. For one lecturer I said that she needed to get more feedback from the students and check they understood. We were a quiet bunch so she assumed the lack of questions meant that we understood what was going on and she whizzed through. Everyone would always afterwards bitch because they didn't understand. The very next lecture after I submitted that, she was constantly asking us concernedly "Do you understand?", "Is that clear?", "Am I going too fast?" and so on. It was hilarious! People seem to listen to my feedback. It's great! (How many times can I fit the word feedback in a paragraph? )

Also, as with last time I seemed to be talking the most. This was partially because they were all a silent bunch and also because I was more relaxed as I had been there before. The speakers did of course try to get everyone involved by targeting questions at everyone equally, which was another of the points I raised last time.

All in all a fairly decent afternoon.

03/02/2004 12:29 AM

Well I was right yesterday about today being a busy day. I seemed to spend most of it just going back and forth between the same places.

I went to the bank in the morning as planned, and had to wait an hour just to speak to someone. The woman promptly told me that before they could do anything, I would need to go to the police station to get a Crime Reference Number. The fuck? I don't recall this being mentioned before by anyone. When I had some fraudulent entries on my credit card a few years ago, all I had to do was cancel my card and send them a signed letter stating what had happened and which entries were fraudulent. Perhaps this is strictly a bank thing or maybe it's something that has been introduced everywhere recently. Who knows.

So anyway, I ask the woman what the next steps were and she told me that I would have to come back with the reference number and fill out some more forms at the bank. That will be important later. As an aside, the number of transactions that were there when I checked on Friday was five, totaling roughly £180. Now though, one has gone missing, bringing the total to roughly £150. I don't know where the other entry went. Perhaps it had something to do with my canceling the card. If so, I hope the company is not going to start chasing me for the money! I was also given a more detailed printout of the transactions by the bank and it showed the places where they had been made. There was a Tescos in Leyton, a Sainsburys in East Ham, a London Transport ticket machine in Plaistow and a company called DSAS Ltd. £60 was taken as cashback from the two supermarkets which just adds to the strangeness of the whole situation because I don't think you can even get cashback with the card that I have!

Anyway, so off I trudged to the police station where I waited for another hour. *sigh*. When I got back to the bank and after waiting some more, I spoke to another woman. She took the form I got from the police and abruptly said that she would fax it to the fraud department and that was it. But didn't the other woman say there were more forms to fill in on my return? When I pointed that out, she assured me that her information was correct. I was willing to accept that but she said that she would go and confirm it just to ease my mind, which I thought was really good. It was a good customer service thing but more importantly it was the correct action because when she returned, she *did* have some forms with her. Luckily I only had to fill in one and she filled in the rest. It's interesting to note that she didn't apologise to me for giving me incorrect information.

So now I sit. £150 out of pocket. Waiting for the fraud department to contact me. It could be six to eight weeks! I'd say that in a few weeks or one bill's time, my funds will be down to two figure numbers. I need that money back as soon as!

That took most of the morning and early afternoon which gave me only an hour or two to eat lunch and sort some stuff out at home before my brother came home, to go to the doctors. And so began the second instance of back and forth. We got there and to our surprise, it was empty and we were let straight in to the doctor. As far as I can recall, that has never happened in the many years that we have been going there. I know that when we were getting out travel vaccinations, we would have to wait at *least* an hour each time before being seen. So we went in and my brother was promptly diagnosed with Conjunctivitis and was prescribed eye drops and an ointment (important!). Off we went to the chemist where we were told that although the correct treatment is eye drops and ointment, the doctor had just written down the eye drops twice. D'Oh! He was yawning when talking to us so I guess that explains it. He said "Oh my god!" in an "Oops!" kind of way when we showed it to him for correction. Heh . On a sidenote, while we were going back to the chemist some random guy suddenly started randomly shouting and swearing at us really really loudly. I think he thought we had said something about him, but we had both been silent most of the trip so we couldn't have, even by accident. The entire incident was quite disturbing.

With all the big things out of the way, I called Office Angels again. The lazy fuckers. Surprise surprise, my contact was busy in an interview and couldn't talk to me but my number could be taken and she would get back to me. I really feel like screaming every time someone uses that fucking phrase because *they never fucking call back*. I told the guy that every time I called I got the same bullshit and he didn't know what to tell me, which I guess I can understand. Still frustrating though. I was going to send an email to my contact today to ask her just what the fuck was going on, but it's too late now. I'll have to put it tomorrows todo list. It seems they are spending more of their time interviewing new people than actually *finding* any fucking work for them. If they're not going to find me any work then I'm just going to get them to rip my information out of every database they have, as is my legal right. Why should the fuckers benefit from me in any way whatsoever without giving me anything in return.

I also contacted Adecco today and sent them my CV. Hopefully I'll hear something from them in a few days. Then I'll be able to hear the "We'll call you back" line from two different sets of people. Happy happy joy joy.

01/02/2004 11:37 PM

It was Eid today. Nuff said.

Actually, not quite. This one was different because this one was the first one, as far as I can recall, where my brother and I have gone to the mosque in the morning by ourselves. Usually it's the case that someone else always goes with us. In the past it has been my cousins or one of my uncles, or recently, my brother-in-law. This time though, no-one. Does this mean that I am now seen as a responsible adult now in certain peoples eyes (mum, I'm looking at you)? I think the fact that no-one else was actually available was the most likely reason . Actually, it was good, as it meant we could get things done quickly without having to hang around for other people.

My brother and I both of course woke up early to get ready to go to the mosque and ever since he woke up, he has been complaining about his eye. In the morning it was just slightly red. As the day wore on it was causing him more and more discomfort. He said that it felt like there was something under his eyelid, but inspections by both myself and my sister revealed nothing. By early evening his eye was quite swollen and he had gunk coming out of the corner of it. We all agreed that he needed to see the doctor but he didn't want to go during school time because he has tests all this week. It may sound strange that he wouldn't jump at the chance to miss out a test, but he's worried about the amount of time he has taken off (3 weeks!) and how far behind he has got. He thinks that if he does badly in the tests he may be moved down to a dumber set. He is currently in either the top set, or the one below that - I forget which. This school is new to all of us so this may very well be what would happen. Who knows. Eventually he was convinced to leave early so that he could go and see the doctor. Unfortunately it'll have to be mum that takes him (dragging my niece along!) because I have an appointment tomorrow, but more on that later. Hopefully the doctor will just give him some medicated eye drops and it'll get sorted. This family has enough problems with vision as it is!

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. *sigh*. In the morning I'm going to have to go see the bank about my money. I have no idea how long that will take. Then in the afternoon, I'll be off to another *FREE* seminar by EXP Solutions. I got a direct email from them sometime last week about another series of seminars they are running. This time though, rather than being one topic (careers) run over several days, it's actually different topics each day. The one I've registered for is about Java ("J2EE, Java, J2SE, JSP, XML, EJB, WebSphere, Oracle and MySQL etc..." according to the blurb) so that should be interesting. What's also different this time is that each of the topics corresponds to a specific "Career Development Programme" (training course to you and me) that they run so there could actually be some advertising and/or hard sell this time. Having looked at the road map for the Java programme, it looks quite interesting. Not only does it cover the standard J2SE stuff, it also covers Enterprise stuff as well as generic career building things like interview/telephone/presentation skills. In the middle it contains a Java certification exam and culminates in some real work experience. All in all it looks pretty good, but I'm sure that will come at a price - something I can't afford right this minute. Once again - *sigh*.

EDIT: I'm a complete moron. Having actually checked the email properly, I see that the seminar is on Tuesday and not tomorrow. I can't be bothered to change any of the above though. This means that tomorrow I can take my brother to the doctors and bother Office Angels as well as join some of the other agencies I have noted down. Given who I am, how many of those things will I *actually* accomplish tomorrow. We'll see.