A Rare Thing
Well, it is a Saturday morning and I'm a) awake and b) not at work. This is quite rare these days, so I've decided to make the most of it by posting here for the first time in ages. So what, you may ask, have I been up to over the last.....month and a half during which I've not been updating here.
The short answer is "not a lot that is worth talking about."
The slightly longer answer is that I finished my exams back in May and have been working fairly consistently since then. The exams themselves I felt went reasonably well, although I got out of the habit of predicting results a long time ago now. 6th July we will find out whether or not I'll need to do retakes or if I can sail through to my final year of education.
Work has been a mixed bag really. Officially I've been unemployed for the last couple of months, ever since the new boss came in and immediately threw out anyone who didn't have a contract in order to cut costs. Unofficially, this decision all but crippled most of the bars in Catering Services, and so since then I've had sporadic patches of work as and when various places have got so desperate they have no choice but to ask me to come in.
This has been quite irritating really, as I had hoped to be able to work full time once the exams were over and so be earning myself sack fulls of cash. As it is, I'm probably managing around 20 hours a week at the moment, about what I was doing during term time.
Outside of work, life isn't very exciting. Hayley has disappeared without trace and doesn't seem to be showing any signs of returning on a full time basis any time soon, which is absolutely fine with me. Jenny is still around, so I do at least have someone to talk to in Bristol.
Really though, life here isn't overly interesting at the moment. The only thing keeping me in Bristol is work, and the knowledge that if I move back home I'll just end up sitting around all day being bored and wondering why everyone I know is out at work. I did go home for a few days last week for my birthday, which I spent with my family; a sharp contrast from last year when I spent the day in London with Katy and didn't see my family at all.
Nevertheless I had a most enjoyable day, which included a BBQ and time on the boat. My "main" present was a SatNav, which is unimaginably cool, but I also got a trill seeker pack (where you have to choose one of a number of extreme sports to try for the day), several DVDs (House Series 1, Talladega Nights and Snatch), some books (The Stars' Tennis Balls and Paperweight by Stephen Fry, Chart Throb by Ben Elton, The Hard Way by Lee Child and 101 Things to Do Before You're Old and Boring), lots and lots of money and a USB fish tank (complete with real plastic fish).
At work my birthday was also noted, with the presentation of a card signed by all my colleagues and a very tasty chocolate cake :D At the end of June we are all going out to celebrate my 21st/say goodbye officially for my unofficial departure, even though I may be working there for another month afterwards :S
So all in all, things are a bit mixed up at the moment. I need to be looking for a new job for next year, even though my current one seems to be almost neverending, but not neverending enough that I don't have to look for a new job. Once I have a job that is guaranteed to put more than £500 in my bank each month for a year, I will be able to find myself somewhere to live for next year, so that I can finish off this damn degree and then go out into the world properly. With every day that passes, my irritation and impatience grows. I want to be put there looking for a professional graduate job, but those are just for graduates sadly, and I won't be one of those for another 12 bloody months.
I'm beginning to wonder if this degree is actually worth it anyway...
The short answer is "not a lot that is worth talking about."
The slightly longer answer is that I finished my exams back in May and have been working fairly consistently since then. The exams themselves I felt went reasonably well, although I got out of the habit of predicting results a long time ago now. 6th July we will find out whether or not I'll need to do retakes or if I can sail through to my final year of education.
Work has been a mixed bag really. Officially I've been unemployed for the last couple of months, ever since the new boss came in and immediately threw out anyone who didn't have a contract in order to cut costs. Unofficially, this decision all but crippled most of the bars in Catering Services, and so since then I've had sporadic patches of work as and when various places have got so desperate they have no choice but to ask me to come in.
This has been quite irritating really, as I had hoped to be able to work full time once the exams were over and so be earning myself sack fulls of cash. As it is, I'm probably managing around 20 hours a week at the moment, about what I was doing during term time.
Outside of work, life isn't very exciting. Hayley has disappeared without trace and doesn't seem to be showing any signs of returning on a full time basis any time soon, which is absolutely fine with me. Jenny is still around, so I do at least have someone to talk to in Bristol.
Really though, life here isn't overly interesting at the moment. The only thing keeping me in Bristol is work, and the knowledge that if I move back home I'll just end up sitting around all day being bored and wondering why everyone I know is out at work. I did go home for a few days last week for my birthday, which I spent with my family; a sharp contrast from last year when I spent the day in London with Katy and didn't see my family at all.
Nevertheless I had a most enjoyable day, which included a BBQ and time on the boat. My "main" present was a SatNav, which is unimaginably cool, but I also got a trill seeker pack (where you have to choose one of a number of extreme sports to try for the day), several DVDs (House Series 1, Talladega Nights and Snatch), some books (The Stars' Tennis Balls and Paperweight by Stephen Fry, Chart Throb by Ben Elton, The Hard Way by Lee Child and 101 Things to Do Before You're Old and Boring), lots and lots of money and a USB fish tank (complete with real plastic fish).
At work my birthday was also noted, with the presentation of a card signed by all my colleagues and a very tasty chocolate cake :D At the end of June we are all going out to celebrate my 21st/say goodbye officially for my unofficial departure, even though I may be working there for another month afterwards :S
So all in all, things are a bit mixed up at the moment. I need to be looking for a new job for next year, even though my current one seems to be almost neverending, but not neverending enough that I don't have to look for a new job. Once I have a job that is guaranteed to put more than £500 in my bank each month for a year, I will be able to find myself somewhere to live for next year, so that I can finish off this damn degree and then go out into the world properly. With every day that passes, my irritation and impatience grows. I want to be put there looking for a professional graduate job, but those are just for graduates sadly, and I won't be one of those for another 12 bloody months.
I'm beginning to wonder if this degree is actually worth it anyway...