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24/02/2009 Zauchensee or bustWell, another trip to the Alps is unfortunately over, but what an experience it was. This time I was working as a rep. at half term for a school group from Bournemouth. It was the usual setup of coach across, ski for 6 days and coach back, but I had an awesome time. The group consisted of 36 11-16 year-olds, 5 teachers, 2 drivers and myself which was a nice manageable number. With a planned outward trip of 25 hours, I got the feeling it was going to be an eventful week when it eventually took 37 hours to get there:
- delays in heavy snow in France
- delays in heavy snow in Germany
- breakdown at a service station in Germany for about 4 hours
- delays in heavy snow in Austria
- a hair-raising ride up the snow-laden valley to resort with Gerry "The Legend" (driver) exceeding all expectations of how far we could get without snow chains
The whole group were absolutely amazing without a single complaint about the journey or anyone asking when we were going to get there ... I'm just glad the teachers had taken along a massive stack of DVDs and that we manged to fix the DVD player.
My group was staying at a youth hostel attached to a fancy hotel in the resort, along with 2 other school groups which were also repped by colleagues from "Sloping Off". The 3 reps stayed in an appartment just down the road and got on amazingly ... I'm just glad Jonny didn't take offence at being the butt of most of the abuse during the week - SCHWULE POWER! (he's only young, he'll get over it). The photos I've uploaded in the photo section say it all ...
Throughout the week the kids had 2 ski lessons each day and all seemed to love it, even those who had the odd trip to the hospital for X-rays and a bit of patching up (thankfully only 2 hurt themselves and neither were too serious). The evenings were entertaining as well with quizzes, skittles, pizza, a race night, table-tennis, ski race, presentations, a disco and the odd beer or two.
The skiing was amazing with huge amounts of snow falling before we got there and again at the start of the week. We were even treated to a whole day of sunshine mid-week so made the most of it with lunch outside a great Ski-Alm in the next resort over from Zauchensee. The off-piste was by far the best I've ever done and helped by the fact I kept (stupidly) following fellow rep Simon (a ski instructor) through the trees. Was I scared? Most of the time!
The journey back was much less eventful than the outbound one and we arrived at the port with plenty of time to spare so had a bit of a look around Ouistram. I'm now starting to try and get my head around the fact that as of Monday I'll be back in a "proper" job and will have to wear a suit and things. That said, I'm hoping they'll have me back next year for half term so we'll wait and see ..... 27/01/2009 BIG questionAs most of you are aware, I popped the big question to Vicky whilst on holiday last week. The place I proposed is in the photos and after her dropping her crutch, crying for a bit and me getting a rather cold knee, she finally said yes (apparently she forgot that this was what she was supposed to do in such a situation).
With a huge smile on my face, I decided to let all my friends and family know the happy news (mainly by email, but what else would you expect from me). The congratulations were warm and heartfelt, although I thought I'd share a few of the more amusing comments with you ...
"I wish you all the best with plenty of Red haired babies" (Bex)
"Congratulations to both of you. Oz did you really have to disable Vicky to ask the question?" (Aggamumma)
"Your days of going off for weeks of playing with boats in the sun will now be a thing of the past" (Drew)
"we like your style, get Vicky on crutches so she can't run away and then ask her to marry to you (was the rest of that sentence "will you marry or I'll leave here at the top of the mountain"?)" (Two Times)
"I wondered if you had asked her just to cheer her up after falling off the chairlift" (Drew)
"next time I see you the drinks are on me" (Moley ... and I'll remember)
"Lucky really... proposing to a heavily armed lady packing crutches after you no doubt suggested the holiday...." (Clive)
"Finally....... Congratulations to you both" (Guy)
"Oh My God!!!" (H & D)
"Score .......... congratulations" (Two Times)
"Please don't let your wedding day clash with ours or there will be trouble" (Greenie)
"The cynic in me would say that you popped the question when Vicky couldn'r run away screaming" (Warren)
"HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND!!!!!!! END OF FREEDOM, LIVING ON THE EDGE, UNBRIDLED SEX WITH VARIOUS WOMEN!!!!" (name witheld to protect the crazy Dutch guy)
"Oh my word,so you found the courage at last" (Scouting World Ma & Pa)
Thank you all so much for your kind words (including those above which really made us chuckle), they mean so much to us. More news as and when we deicde what, who, where, when, etc. ... there are some photos on the right ... 30/10/2008 End of Season RallyAnother end of the sailing season and another great rally - my 101st sailing trip and 23rd time as skipper. This year there were about 70 people and 9 yachts taking part in a weekend of sailing, eating, drinking and making-merry. I had a boat full of great friends without much sailing experience so we turned it into a bit of a training weekend instead of participating in the racing.
After dinner in the Castle, when eveyone else headed off to parties on various boats we decided to go and 'make' our outfits for the next night's debauchery. You've never seen grown adults having so much fun with paint pens! I think the photos bear testiment to the professionalism with which the task was undertaken (?). for the record, the table below summarises who was on board, our sailing nicknames and our flag letters (plus descriptions).
Before even leaving our mooring on Saturday morning, Angela (my very able mate) and I had been through the different parts of the boat with the crew, practised getting sails in and out and done a safety brief. With the wind forecast to be in-between Force 5 and 8 for the whole weekend I'll admit it made me slightly nervous, but everyone focussed on what needed doing and we had an awesome time.
Taking it in turns on the helm and practising various manouevres, I think we did more tacks than I've done in the past 3 years of sailing. After a great day on the water (and an interesting parking manouevre on a boat which really didn't like steering in astern) it was time to get dressed-up and head to the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club for dinner. I'll let the photos speak for themselves ....
Sunday proved to be a much more relaxing day than forecast with a pleasant downwind sail back to Haslar and the end of a fantastic weekend. Roll-on next year. 22/10/2008 Pomp and CeremonyLast week I was fortunate enough to be invited to see my father honoured with an MBE for many years of service to the community in Essex. The day started ordinarily enough with an early start to get into London. I thought that leaving 3 hours to do the 35 miles to Buckingham Palace was a little excessive .. but what did I know? By the time we'd done a little tour of Docklands, ignored the Sat-Nav several times as it wanted to go the wrong way, and negotiated the good 'ol London traffic we arrived precisely on time.
Having been directed into the inner-courtyard to park alongside the others who had chosen to drive (including a rather nice Roller from the Ritz) we were then ushered in the main entrance and to our seats - father with the other recipients and us as a family in the Banquetting Hall. Looking through the order of the day, it turned out that Dad was to receive his MBE towards the end which was nice as it kept us awake in what was a somewhat repetitive ceremony ... 109 people were receiving awards that day. As the Queen was busy Googl'ing and preparing to host our magnificent Olympians later in the day, Prince Charles presented the awards - I thought it rather nice for Dad to receive his gong from the future King.
As we checked where Dad was in the list, we noticed that he was immediately after Paul O'Grady (with the daytime show and him of Lily Savage fame) - aparently he was quite amusing to stand next to in the queue and was desperate for some toast having missed breakfast. The presentation itself took a minute or so with Charles having a nice chat to Dad ... about Scouting aparently.
After the ceremony was completed there was a grand photo shoot and then we went for a fabulous lunch at Rules in Covent Garden - what a feast. The food, the wine, the service and the company were all superb and I can thoroughly recommend it for those special occasions.
All in all a fantastic day to remember and a lifetime of pride in my father's achievement. We weren't allowed to take photos during the ceremony, but I've uploaded a few from the photo session afterwards in the photo area. 9/10/2008 Oyster Regatta 2008 - PalmaWow, what a fantastic experience the Oyster Regatta in Palma was. I was out there for about 10 days, with the Regatta lasing for 5 of those. I had all sorts of preconceptions about what the event would be like, but was very pleasantly surprised by how welcoming the people were, how much fun the racing was and the great organisation of daytime and evening activities. We had 4 days of racing - 2 around the Bay of Palma and 2 to the island of Cabrera and back. I was sailing on Zebahdy, an Oyster 49 filmed during the regatta from helicopter ... can you spot me ...
Generally the wind was good making the racing exciting. Seeing the 82's go screaming past was always a buzz, especially when the whole fleet of 34 yachts were flying chutes or spinnakers. At one point we touched 10 knots which felt great.
The evenings involved dinner and wine at some great restaurants and even a club in a cave which saw us partying until the early hours. There was a great mix of people - young and old, owners and wannabe owners, relaxers and partyers. As well as spending the time with the owners of Zebhady I also got to know loads of great people as well as catching up with old friends Marco and Jill who run Palma Maritime, a yacht management and charter company based in Palma. Oh yes, couldn't forget Toby, Marco and Jill's Pointer who has worked out that he can use the lilo's in the pool to try and get his dog toys that have gone astray. 19/08/2008 It's grim oop nooorth ... or is it???Well, I've done it and I'm now living with Vicky in a (currently) very wet Sheffield. I've been here a total of about 4 days now, but am making the most of my time by clearing the shed, fixing the gutters, sorting out some electrical bits & pieces and installing a new compost bin!
We've just returned from a fantastic holiday in Austria - we went to Saalbach where I was working a couple of summers ago and it was great to see all my old friends out there who made us extremely welcome (including Bobby and Bobby's Bar as we didn't leave until 04:30 on the first night).
Before that was the Essex Jamboree which was also a huge amount of fun - there's no better feeling than throwing a small child off a perfectly good tower and all in the name of 'outdoor adventure'.
Check out all the photos on this site as they say way more than I could.
I'm now looking for a job somewhere near here, preferably something to do with the outdoors / environment so I'll keep you posted as things progress ... 21/07/2008 All changeWell, having had nothing exciting to write about for the last year because I've been working, it's now time for another change of direction .. and this time it's north! I finished work on Friday and am now planning a summer of fun:
- Essex Scout Jamboree - helping throw 10,000 youngsters off the top of the abseil tower.
- A week back in Austria (Saalbach) visiting old friends and introducing them to my better half.
- A couple of weeks playing on boats in Palma.
- A beer festival or two.
- Another 9 days in Palma for the Oyster regatta.
- Heading North to Sheffield to move in with Vicky.
How exciting is all that!? I'm really looking forward to the whole summer and to growing up and moving in with the love of my life. I'll be looking for work in the Autumn so answers on a postcard please (answers suggesting ways of making lots of money in the Peaks much appreciated). Hope you're all well and enjoying life. 20/08/2007 21st World Scout JamboreeHi everyone. Sorry it's been ages since I last wrote - I've been stupidly busy both at work and at the Jamboree. The 2 weeks there was absolutely awesome.
21st World Scout Jamboree
Being at the site with 40,000 people, all in their national dress and waving flags was spectacular. The atmosphere was indescribable, a real experience of a lifetime. I made some great friends as well and hope to get out to Sweden with some of them for the next Jamboree in 4 years time.
I spent most of the jamboree throwing kids off the top of the abseil tower, but also did a bit of climbing and even some straw-bale caving! The kids all loved it, as did the staff. To keep people on their toes we caused a little mayhem:
- adding new sponsorship signage to the Challenge Valley gateway (come on, they DID look like they worked at B&Q).
- liberating the ducks from the fish-a-duck pond and releasing them into their natural environment of the Bombhole.
- adding very supportive signs to the archery targets.
- helping Sammy squirrel leave presents for our boss "Moo".
... I guess you had to be there! I've uploaded a few of the many thousands of piccies that are circulating so hope you enjoy them and they give a bit of a taster of what it was like.
Work
I've now come back down to earth with a bump. As soon as I got back from the Jamboree I was off on a 3 day training course ... learning about car-parks. ... barrier up .... barrier down. I'm now back at the marina and steadily ploughing through a list of jobs as long as my arm.
Hope everyone is well and to hear from you soon. 24/07/2007 Busy, busy, busySo long with no updates! I guess work is taking over my life, but I've still managed to find time for a little bit of play as well. I may not be galavanting all over the Euroe any more, but thought I'd write a quick update on here in case anyone's interested.
Snowdon
A couple of weekend's ago I went over to Snowdon with Steve and we thought we'd be really brave and do the ridge route (Crib Goch). So, we packed up our climbing gear, extra clothing, plenty of food and emergency kit and set off. Snowdon was as busy as it usually is, but getting to Crib Goch and having to queue was just daft - we were waiting for people in trainers, youth groups, 6 year-old kids ... all sorts. It is a great route, but quickly became apparent we were motorway mountaineering. During the descent along the Watkin Path we had the misfortune of witnessing a young lad slip on the scree and descned down the mountain at a vast rate of knots on his back, head, side - went rolling down just like a rag doll. Somehow he managed to stop just before a sheer ledge so we helped patch him up and luckily nothing was broken.
It was a cracking 8 hour round trip and we're trying to decide on what our next little adventure project should be - any ideas gratefully received.
Round the Island
I recently had a call from a member of the Royal Southampton Yacht Club who wanted someone to help him round the Isle of Wight in a double-handed race. He has a brand new Hanse 315 and we had a corker of a day. There were 120 yachts racing and our class was made up of about 20. We were 2nd or 3rd over the start line and stayed amongst the leaders to Hurst. Unfortunately, without a spinnaker the whole fleet overtook us on the downwind leg, but we still really enjoyed it.
I'm hoping to do some dinghy sailing with him as well and to get involved with the summer RSYC evening race series.
Work
Work is keeping me stupidly busy, but it's good to have something to exercise the ol' grey matter again. I'm doing all sorts from planning control rooms for car parks to managing maintenance across the estate to planning various improvements to attending fancy Sunseeker events with lots of rum :-) It's keeping me in the office until all hours, but I'm hoping that when I've got it running how I want it things will calm down a bit.
Jamboree
As many of you will know the 21st World Scout Jamboree starts next week and I'm going to be helping run the climbing and abseiling for 30,000 kids .. in Essex. The kids are coming from nearly every country in the world and I can't wait. I did my climbing assessment on Sunday (following a wedding reception the night before!) and got my supervisor's ticket so I can look after a number of climbs and instructors at any one time. I should be able to do my abseiling assessment during the jamboree as well which will be great.
Anyway, hope I haven't bored you all too much and that everyone is enjoying life and living it to the full. Hope to hear from you all soon - please leave a note in the guestbook, a comment below this blog or take a look at the photos of Palma.
Oz
4/06/2007 Reality is about to hit ... with a bump.As most of you know, I've finally decided it's time to return to the real world and to get a job. I've accepted the position of Estate Supervisor at Ocean Village Marina in Southampton and start next Monday. The start date was particularly good planning on my part, having not sorted out anywhere to live and it being the day after a weekend stag do. Still, I have now found a really nice place to rent, sharing with a copper, which is a few minutes walk from Ocean Village so just need all the payments to go through before I can move in.
The job sounds like it is going to be a real challenge in an exciting period at the marina. I'll be looking after everything that isn't wet - the local businesses, car-parking, residents, maintenance, green areas and so on. £100m is being invested in the area so there's going to be huge changes over the next few years and it will be nice to be a part of that. I'll also be in the right place to make lots of contacts on the sailing front so hope to get out on the water as many weekends as possible.
I'll update my profile with my new address as soon as I move in (if you don't have access to my profile, please shout). It would be nice to see people out on the water as soon as possible. 24/05/2007 The sun keeps on shiningSo I haven´t quite made it home yet, but I´m sure I will at some point ... possibly ... maybe ... who knows? Things here have continued to be hot, sunny, alcoholic ... and hard work! The cleaning of the Oyster is now finished and she is looking sparkling (wish she was mine). Finished by polishing the hull yesterday so the sun now reflects off the water and makes pretty patterns on the boat .. how nice! I´ve also been doing bits and pieces with the charter company on other boats ... like testing out the new sails on a Benneteau 50 :-) Now that was a job I enjoyed - went for a sail for an hour or so around the Bay of Palma - beautiful.
What else has been happening? ...
1. The war against the mosquitos is won! I have now destroyed their air-force to such an extent that they cannot mount a sustained attack and my air-raid defences are now well honed (a big book by Chris Ryan of the SAS has squatted most of them).
2. I bumped into crazy Romanian bloke again the other night and had a few more beers. He had spent the whole fo the first night telling me how Romanian women were the most beautiful in the world ... yada yada yada ... then he introduced me to some ... and it´s true!
3. I´ve found a nice little Irish Bar in Palma Old Town where I now go every other night or so. Got chatting to a German guy and 2 Swiss girls last time I was in there. I´ve decided that the Swiss are absolutely nuts as well - probably comes from the fact that they never get into any fights (something about always staying neutral was discussed, but I lost the plot when they migrated from English to German to Swiss-German) so have no ´release´which drives them nuts.
4. Was invited onto a neighbour´s boat for a beer yesterday evening and then he was meeting up with a ´friend´for a meal and invited me too. Went to a fancy Scandanavian hotel which served fantastic food. When he refused to let either of us pay for our meals I felt ´bought´and wondered what I´d have to do in return. Note to self - keep away from the scary German´s.
Other than that I´m just enjoying the sun, the spectacular lightning shows some evenings and the general atmosphere here in Majorca. Hope you´re all well and getting as good a sun-tan as I have ;-) 18/05/2007 Sun, sea and senioritas!!!... oh, and just in case Boyd and Debbie (the owners of the boat that I´m here to clean!) read this, I feel I need to add 'work' to the list as well :-) I´m having a great time here in Palma - up to 30 degrees and I´m working hard and apparently playing hard as well. Quite proud of myself actually - my rep training has stood me in good stead as I went to bed at 05:15 this morning and was back on deck working at 08:30.
So what have I been up to? Here´s a brief run-down (as I must get back to my deck waxing):
Well, I think that´s about all I´ve been up to. Going to have a bit off time off over the weekend to explore the island and get a bit of 'beach-time'. Weather has been constantly good enough for T-shirt and shorts, even at night. Wish you were here! 9/05/2007 What's new in the Ginger Kingdom?Nearly a month since the last update so what have I been up to? Well, I'm STILL trying to get a job - having been offered the post of 'car-park attendant extraordinaire' at Ocean Village I asked them for a bit more information before accepting ... and that was a month ago. I've chased it 3 times but still nothing so I'm not quite sure what's going on there.
So, I've tried to make the most of my time and 3 events spring to mind ...
1. Makeover and photoshoot
Many moons ago I registered on the Channel 4 Shipwrecked website (Islandoo.com) and whilst their I applied for all the competitions they had going on. One of these was to win a makeover and photoshoot ... which I won - hahahahaaaaaa. I headed down to London and spent the afternoon being pampered like a King - 15 minute face massage, hand massage, bucks-fizz to sup on and a 5-set photo shoot. The shoot was hilarious and I felt all model-like. Watch out male-supermodel-land, here I come. After all this I had a viewing session of all the photos with loads of filters and stuff applied and came away with 3 fancy snaps of me ... not sure what to do with them though so any ideas?
2. London Zoo
Having had such fun in London at the photo-shoot I went back again, but this time to the zoo with a friend who I worked with in Austria. Having not been since I was 7 (so Mum tells me - I don't remember it at all) we spent ages exploring all the displays and enclosures and had a great time. The new gorilla kingdom is spectacular and the big ctas were cool (as was the donkey and the pooping parrot).
3. Wales and the animals
I've just come back from another weekend with my friends in Wales. Steve and Jacqui's menagerie is ace with the cutest cat on the planet (although Charlie, Ros' ginger pussy, would give her a good run for her money on the cuteness stakes). The goats have grown since I was last there and we took them out for a walk which is always hilarious when you see the looks you get from local dog-walkers and Billy the horse is still as good as ever at pretending to be miserable.
Steve and I had to do some work as I managed to teach the goats how to jump the fence (apparently it was my fault anyway) so they now have even more electric fencing up. The rest of the weekend was spent eating food (a great BBQ with Durns & Hannah + various parents), drinking too much, playing pool, thrashing the Wiimees on the Wii (if you're not sure what a Wii is, ask a child!), buying doors and watching Spiderman 3 (ace movie - go see it).
Other than that there's not a lot to tell ... oh, had I mentioned that I've bought a one-way ticket to Palma (Majorca)? ... leave on Monday ...
22/04/2007 Space changesMicrosoft have been hard at it, adding loads of new features to Windows Live Spaces so my Space has changed again (although not much). One new option they've added is a guestbook which you'll find beneath the photos and videos on my home page. It'd be great to hear all your gossip so please leave a comment.
The photo tools have changed as well - if you'd like to view the photos full size then click on the icon which is a small square with an arrow coming out of it. If you want to skip forward or backwards through the photos, move the cursor so it's over the current photo and as if by magic new tools will appear. 11/04/2007 Easter Sailing TripSomehow I found myself in Southampton on Thursday ... and coincidentally some of my friends were sailing from Southampton for the weekend so I joined them. What a fab weekend! We stayed in Ocean Village Thursday night before heading off bright and early on Friday (11am is bright and early isn't it?). Plan A was to head for Frogland, but Mr. Windy decided not to come out to play so we motored towards Weymouth instead. We called in at Lulworth Cove to see if we could anchor there for the night, but the naughty anchor didn't want to bed in so after the 8th attempt we gave up and carried on to Weymouth .... which was quickly renamed "Weybouche-sur-Mer" in keeping with the French plan - the locals looked really confused when we started talking French! Sloppy Guiseppe (Caz) had been in the galley all day and cooked up an amazing Thai curry. She also proved that I'm a bit of a girl when it comes to hot food. At least I wasn't alone as I could see steam coming from Able Seaman Tinky-Winky's (Reesy's) ears. Now, I feel I should explain how Tinky-Winky got her name. She turned up on deck in the morning in what can only be described as a fluffy adult romper suit! Had it been purple it would have been perfect. The meal was accompanied by a box of red wine and various other liquid treats and as usual we all got a bit silly, especially when Tinky-Winky fell out of the airlock (I never knew yachts had air locks before then ... long story ... you had to be there!).
Saturday morning brought croissants for breakfast (continuing the French theme), generously obtained from Tesco's by Clive (Claire was renamed Clive by Tinky-Winky who got a bit confused one morning!). We motored out of Weybouche-sue-Mer in gorgeous sunshine and flat-calm seas (woohoo!). Saturday night we anchored in Studland Bay which was beautiful at sunset and we ate another fine feast prepared by Sloppy Joe. As is only correct whilst at sea this was accomanied by a bottle of Tanqueray gin although there was a problem - someone had bought along a liquour measure! This was met with cries of dispair by Able Seaman Tinky Winky who promptly declared that whoever had brought them on board was a 'Knobber' ... and so Ros got her nickname! Despite using the measures, the gin portions still seemed to be adequately healthy. It was only on further inspection later on in the evening that we realised you weren't supposed to fill the measure to the top as that equated to a triple .. perfect!
Sunday brought more motoring and we headed back to Southampton, even managing to sail for about 30 minutes. Rather than go straight back to Ocean Village we stayed overnight at Shamrock Quay. With Clive, Knobber and Sloppy Joe having to depart early in the afternoon, that left Andy, Tinky-Winky, Cap'n V Harbour (so named as she felt she could take the responsibility of being in charge whilst in harbour but that it was a bit too scary once outside) and myself to find something to do to amuse ourselves. For the first time during the whole weekend a decision was quickly and unanimously reached - we'd get a beer at the pub whilst deciding what we'd do for the afternoon. Unfortunately we were subsequently proving to be less than decisive and 5 beers later the problem of what to do became void as the afternoon had progressed into evening and food was required.
On Monday we had a gentle pootle about Southampton Water before heading back into Ocean Village. It was a fabulous weekend and I'd like to thank all my crewmates for letting me join them at the last minute. Roll on the next exciting adventure on the water ... 29/03/2007 The Job Centre experienceIt's time to weep ... feel for my lowly plight ... after 2 months of unsuccessfully looking for work I have signed-on. I know I should be happy at getting something back for all those years of paying in to the system, but somehow it just didn't seem right. From the moment I forced myself across the threshold I didn't feel like I could ever fit-in in this place and subsequent analysis of the situation has highlighted why:
Now, whilst I'm on the subject of the Job Centre, perhaps this would be a good place to highlight the reason why unemployment is such a problem, just in case the government are listening ...
THE STAFF AT THE JOB CENTRE ARE THE LEAST INSPIRING PEOPLE YOU'VE EVER MET
There, glad I got that off my chest. Every week or two when I visit (I've endured a whole 4 trips there now) I get called to see an 'advisor', but have yet to receive any 'advice'. What I usually get is them telling me how much they hate their jobs and can't wait to get out of the office. Can anyone explain to me how this is supposed to encourage me to find gainful employment rather than sit at home waiting for the cheques to roll-in?
They also seem to have major issues with minor tasks like communicating, caring and organising. I threw the whole system into chaos last week as I knew I wouldn't be able to make an appointment so I let them know beforehand. HUGE'A MISTAKE'A TO MAKE'A. "Oh ... people don't usually tell us that they're not going to come in, they just don't turn up ... let me find a form to fill in". So, 10 minutes later we're filling in a 'I'm not going to attend on the correct day' form and get 'advised' to come back at the same time the week after instead.
I went in at the 'advised' time, but after waiting for 30 minutes to be called (whilst trying not to catch anything nasty off the person sitting next to me) I decided to ask if they were going to be much longer. After 3 of them had searched the whole system they could find no record of me and 'advised' me to go to reception (good delaying tactics, comonly employed by the wisest job centre in-mates ... sorry, advisors). I patiently queued for 15 minutes to get to reception whilst the girl with a walking stick, different coloured children, a huge bump in her tummy and too many rings to fit on her scarily stumpy (and slightly webbed?) fingers in front of me kicked up a bit of a fuss - something to do with her not being paid enough while she sat on her fat arse doing nothing other than swear at her kids at home (not that I'm one to judge of course - I'm sure she's lovely really and deserves all your hard-earned taxes ... just like I do). Finally ... could reception help me? I had 3 of them chasing around too, trying to find out what should have happened with my 'I'm going to miss an appointment' form. It seems I should have been booked in, but someone forgot ... so another wait and I see another advisor ... who promptly tells me how much she hates work. Common theme here!
Please ... if you know of any jobs going, take pity on me and save me from yet another visit to the Job Centre from Hell next week .... 16/03/2007 Back on the high seasSo I'm still unemployed (or is that unemployable?), still bored out of my skull and still eating far too much comfort food to while away the days ... but at least that gave me the chance to accept a very generous offer to join a new boat owner on the delivery of his yacht from Ipswich to Southampton.
From Sunday morning until yesterday afternoon I was aboard a beautiful Oyster 49 on her way to Southampton, ready to be shipped across to Palma where she'll be enjoyed by owners and charterers alike in the Mediterranean sun. So what does it take to afford one of the most beautiful yachts afloat, what should I do as a job next so that I can buy one? Well, apparently I need to become an awfopeedick ... awthopeedik ... orthapeed ... orfapae ... orthapae ... ... doctor! Better start studying now I guess.
Along with the owners, Boyd (the doctor type with fancy title that I can't spell) and Debbie, were Michael (quickly renamed 'the Epicentre') - a friend of theirs - and Gene, the delivery skipper. Gene tried to convince us that his name was Martin, but I'm absolutely convinved it was actually Gene Hackman, who had even mastered a tractor-boy Suffolk accent to throw us off the scent. Being an actor he should be good at accents and pretending to be someone else - perhaps he just needed a break from Hollywood.
The trip took us from Ipwich to Ramsgate to Eastbourne to Brighton and finally to Southampton. Sailing at this time of year you expect freezing weather, bucket-loads of rain and waves as big as mountains, but you'll see from the photos that it was spectacular. Not a lot of wind so we couldn't do much sailing unfortunately, but plenty of sunshine and warm(ish) winds.
The days afloat went incredibly quickly as we whiled away the hours watching out for lobster pots, fishing boats and the odd warship that wouldn't move out of our way. We also went deep into important conversations about such interesting subjects as education, health services and milk cartons. To clear up a dispute that raged on the boat for at least 20 seconds I'd just like to set the record straight. The founder of Tetr Pak wasn't Norwegian or Indian. He was in fact Swedish and his name was Dr. Ruben Rausing ... so Boyd gets the points for being closest!
I had a fantastic time aboard and really enjoyed sailing with the others who put up with me even when I declared I wanted to be a lesbian (I really must remember to engage brain before opening mouth when sailing with people who haven't known me very long). But what next? Off to Gilwell Scout Activity Centre for a working weekend - starting preparations for the World Scout Jamboree in July / August. Unfortunately no central heating in my little tent like there was on the boat so need to wrap up warm. 4/03/2007 Bored bored boredOK, so I'm that bored I've changed my website background again ... to more of a 'gingery' colour this time with some nice calming oriental-type stuff in the background ... how nice. Not a lot to tell at the moment as I'm still out hunting for work inbetween fixing shed roofs and sorting out computers that don't seem to like me.
My new 'Please gimme a job website' (link to the left) has had quite a lot of hits ... but no-one offering work unfortunately. Have to keep fingers crossed for my last outstanding application to go somewhere.
Anyway, be good to hear from you all with the latest gossip. |
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