Job Interview (and time issues)

Posted on by gizzajob

This morning I had a job interview with Bannvale Credit Union in Portglenone. Last week, after hearing the offer for an interview, my cleaner helped find a used car for me; which I paid for and insured. The car is a 2008 Black Peugeot 308 Turbodiesel. Nippy, but not good news whenever it gets colder.

Yesterday, I had a massage with my complementary therapist, and she gave me a bottle of rescue remedy for me. This morning, I overused it; and was hyper. Time-wise, I don’t operate on a regular schedule. If you have no job, no kids and no patience, ‘taking your time’ is like having a loaded gun pointed to your forehead.

On Saturday, I drove to Portadown to get a train to and from Belfast to see an art exhibition by a Chinese artist; for Chinese New Year. Then I drove to Loughgall chapel; with three and a half hours to kill before an anniversary mass for a relative’s mother-in-law. Being left to one’s elements – with the time constraints of others – meant that I rely on my phone, and 4G, to keep me company.

However, Belfast Trust has got back to me about possibly volunteering at Lifeline Helpline. I did a quick résumé for them; and will call them first thing tomorrow. Also, I plan to apply for an engineering apprenticeship with NIE. God loves a trier. 🙂

Tunes (and clips)

Getting agitated

Posted on by gizzajob

Today, I was on the Community Bus home, whenever a news headline triggered me, and I began tapping the back of the seat in front of me in agitation. That seat happened to be the driver’s, and she said it was ‘distracting’ her. I got home safely, but I still feel wired.

Yesterday’s shopping trip was a bit of a blow-out. However, I bought Christmas lights at the branch of Dobbie’s Garden Centre outside Lisburn. We stopped for breakfast there. I wasn’t aware that they provided breakfast for us, and I had already paid for one. But I got both breakfasts, and this morning I lost a pound in Slimming World. 🙂

I did buy a twelve-inch single in Belfast, during the trip. It was from Flowered Up – London’s answer to the Happy Mondays. Music was coming into my life around the end of the Baggy era. I once got a bicycle bell for Christmas, with a smiling yellow face. Being a good Catholic boy, I took it off for fear of the drug connotations. 🙂 A misspent youth, with hindsight.

I’m also listening to a Van Morrison LP, a friend lent to me. Also, I’m trying out the Vivaldi browser; developed by Opera, but emulates as Chrome. Good on the MacBook. Not so good on the Android.

Tunes:

 

Expenses

Posted on by gizzajob

Yesterday, my car was serviced for £100. Not bad. But, whenever you have very little income coming in, and one is eating into savings, that’s still sore. I feel that I could never get any financial luck.

Also, the ‘r’ key on my MacBook Pro is broken. The guy who fixed it reckoned it was due to dust. But I feel that cleaning my keyboard made the situation worse. I am feeling despondent again.

This evening, I went to another Slimming World class, and I lost another half-pound. But I feel that I want it off NOW! However, I just have to keep doing what I am doing and the miracles will happen.

Exhaustion is an issue fo me. Yesterday, I went on a few bus rides en route to Belfast. While I got home safely enough, I had so much to do at home, I wore myself to the ground. Now I know how difficult it is to be a Single Guy in this world.

Tunes:

Losing Weight

Posted on by gizzajob

Three weeks ago, I was hospitalised after sensory overload. I have been on the hamster wheel quite a while, recently. However, what emerged from that is an awareness of my limitations. For the four Wednesday evenings of June, I will be attending Pilates classes in Holywood (North Down, in case you might be searching for me on IMDb) and hope to join the local sessions in Coagh once it resumes in September.

Also, a fortnight ago, my car got through the MOT. Having heard about the daughter of my ex-Landlady from Dublin spending over €1,000 on repairs for the Southern equivalent and still not getting the car passed, I can be thankful that I have good people in my local community who won’t rip me off. But, yesterday, the service light was on, and the car needs to be seen to, again, on Monday.

Last Sunday, I went to the Continental Market in Cookstown. Really glad to have gone. I had a Brautwrst hotdog there from the German stall and Grilled Chicken with Sweet-Potato Fries fries from the Spanish booth. My three weeks of Slimming World have gone well. Three-quarters of a stone – aka ten and a half pounds – lost, already. 🙂

Tonight, I’ll be seeing Superstars Café’s team do a stage production of ‘The Lion King’. Hopefully, on Tuesday evening – if the car will be fine – I will see the Elton John film in Cookstown Cinema. Things are better now. 🙂

 

Tunes:

 

Bittersweet week

Posted on by gizzajob

On Tuesday morning, I received an email from Queen’s University in Belfast saying that they’re placing me on a twelve-month waiting list for available jobs. Not wholly there yet. But I’m within touching distance of work. 🙂

However, I found out yesterday from a friend in my art class that an old friend of mine; whom we both knew from the Beacon Centre in Cookstown, was found dead on Tuesday morning. Suspected suicide. That kinda knocked me off last night and I had a long sleep last night, until almost one this afternoon. Then I had to send a mass card to the Beacon Centre and they were away on a day out. I put it through the letterbox.

Also, I saw ‘The Meg’ on Tuesday evening in a Belfast Cinema with a Meetup group. Hooray for pippin. 🙂

Now, I have to feel my feelings. :S

Tunes:

 

 

Internet issues – again

Posted on by gizzajob

My internet is still giving me jip. I’m six and a half months into a two-year contract and I had to order specialist broadband – a codec which converts Mobile 4G data to WiFi – just to get decent speeds. At times I despair, but then there are times wherein I reckon I should use my time more constructively.

My Graphic Design Meetup in Dublin is tomorrow, then I will commit to more practice on Illustrator using Creative Cloud’s YouTube account.

Tunes:

Applying for PIP

Posted on by gizzajob

In a fortnight’s time, I will have an assessment for Personal Independence Payment in Dungannon at 8 am. My employment advisor will be coming with me. Personally, I would much rather be working. But I still need to resolve certain issues in my life.

My brother begins his Placement Year at Randox Laboratories in Antrim and will be on vacation in New York at the end of July. Suppose I shall have to be happy for him as I was the one that picked him up at his lowest ebb. It gives me some achievement.

These past few weeks, during Lent, I decided ‘No Meetups’. Next Tuesday I will be resuming Meetups and heading to Dublin for a Graphic Design Meetup. My two Adobe EdEx qualifications have helped build my portfolio.

Also, in a fortnight’s time, my Art Class in Moneymore resumes. Haven’t painted since January. I was busy as Hell then and had little Muse.

Tunes:

 

No job, yet, but a new course

Posted on by gizzajob

I didn’t get the job with Genesis Bakery in Magherafelt, but I am currently undertaking a course in UX/UI with Adobe GenPro. As usual, I am being pretty proactive in the process. Xd is a new challenge for me, it became offical last Friday after being Beta for so long. But I am getting the hang of it now. I do, still, flip the lid quite a bit. :p

Now, the next challenge is to lose weight. I am pretty chunky. I used to chat with this lad from Backpool in England about Darts; he was 16 at the time, 12 years ago. When I added him on Bebo I was soon given stick about how fat I was. But I was able to take it on the chin. Or double-chin. :p

 

I have my high-speed broadband now, but I do have to pay a king’s ransom for it. Trust me, living in a city is far more affordable than living in the country. But I may have to relocate next year to pursue a career. I’ll be forty in 2019 and the past eleven-odd years have been spent chasing work and getting nowhere. But, then, they do say life begins at forty. When a friend of mine did Death Clock for me back in 1999 they said I would die aged forty. My father was killed in the troubles at age thirty-three, the age Christ was when he was crucified, and I thought that because of that link I would die at the same age John Lennon was when he was killed. Then fear entered my life.

 

But, now, I feel that I am starting to make an effort to prove the naysayers wrong. 🙂

 

Tunes:

 

 

 

Art exhibition

Posted on by gizzajob

This evening I attended an art exhibition of paintings done by my colleagues at the art class in Moneymore. It was at Lissan House; the Stately Home I was looking to volunteer at from next week on. I wasn’t 100% sure of the driveway and was getting anxious and nervous passing through the forest. However, I got there safely. Low and behold, the office manager I will be talking to on Monday morning greeted me at the door and is a daughter of my art Teacher. Small world. 🙂

 

I got to speak to my friends, as well as a guy from Stewartstown who’s a distant cousin on neghbours of the relative I regularly visit. It was great to be visible in that way. I even found out that one of the class’ organisers is a great-grandmother and she is barely above sixty.

 

Great to have made myself present and hopefully have made a good first impression; first impressions count.

 

Tunes:

 

 

My right palm is itchy

Posted on by gizzajob

And that’s traditionally a sign that I will receive money. 🙂

Not only is there a possible job prospect, but there could be closure on the distribution of money that my gran had in the South of Ireland that me and my brother will discuss with our solicitor on Friday. And, also, my gran had life insurance with Royal Sun Alliance that I noticed in the bank statement that I requested to close.

No offers for marriage, please. I’m not gonna flash the cash; I’m no longer gullible. :p

Tunes: