I’m nervous of jinxing myself by saying so, but things seem to be looking up a bit for me,  Not only is it definitely spring now, with daffodils and everything, but I now have my Transport for London pass so that I can travel to see those daffodils and such in distant parts of the city for nothing.  I was moaning a lot about not getting my free ( Read more... )

Yesterday I had another appointment with the back-to-work people.  I did see the mad duck woman last week, but she seemed to have completely forgotten about me, and spent all our very short interview trying to palm me off on someone else ( Read more... )

The jobsearch is on again, I suppose. On Thursday I revisited the agency I saw last spring, and they boosted my confidence enough for me to start thinking of myself as employable again. I also got orders for four more sock monkeys (one "large and pink", one pirate, a Batman and a Mr Spock), which was also cheering. On Friday, I bounced out of ( Read more... )

I'm still signing on for unemployment benefit, and this week they had booked me into a two-day course to improve my chances of finding work. I had been dreading this, mainly because I was afraid of being late for it, having fallen out of the habit of getting up early, and was not too keen on the whole idea of the damn course anyway. I got up in ( Read more... )

Sunshine yesterday, making everything look a lot more optimistic, possibly even with a faint hint of oncoming spring. I met up with a friend at the National Gallery, and we pottered about town for a while and then I came home and gave the flat a long-overdue tidy ( Read more... )

Dear me, I haven't been on here for what seems like ages. I've been working all week, and all last week, and the week before, and feel permanently exhausted, but generally much happier with something to do. A normal job involves taking 30-40 paint samples, setting them in resin, polishing them, and looking at them under the microscope, and the ( Read more... )

Several days of continuous work, plus some vitamin/mineral supplements seem to have perked me up no end. I'll be sorry when this job is over, now. Today I processed 80 samples, and ordered (or tried to order) a lot of interestingly toxic chemicals) and for the second time in four days, emerged from the workshop in a cloud of solvent fumes to ( Read more... )

The H&S exam went off very easily, especially as I'd spent all afternoon boning up on far too much of the handbook, and sat on the bus all the way to the exam place muttering to myself about fire extinguisher colours. It is ridiculous how agitated I get over any sort of examination, even though (or perhaps because) I have never failed one in my ( Read more... )

Work seems to be picking up. As of Monday, I was due to head back to Chatsworth on Thursday, after completing my Health and Safety exam on Wednesday evening, then I was to process the Chatsworth samples on Friday and off to Canterbury on Monday morning (at 6.30 in the morning). This afternoon, I was just on the point of booking my train ticket ( Read more... )

The promised work has been delayed for yet another week, which is financially annoying, but will at least allow me more time for my important business of sweating, cursing the weather and having little lie-downs. Apparently I can't go onto the new site (which is in Canterbury) until I have some sort of health-and-safety accreditation, which will ( Read more... )