I’m only ever seen in the right place

I hit the 2 month mark at my new job and I’m really getting into it now. I’m now at the stage where I know exactly what I have to do, no longer relying on the notes I was furiously taking down in the first few weeks of my job. I’m quite heartened to hear my workmates say how well i’ve been doing, how fast I work and how easy it is to get on with me. Everybody likes compliments (or an oppurtunity to enlarge my ego…), i’m no different!!

I’ve steadily got to know most people at work too. The ground floor staff, i all know. If not to talk to, i at least know their names. Upstairs, however, is like a whole other world! It’s larger and there is no great urgency to go upstairs throughout the day, so I tend not to mix with the people up there so much. Well, that was until last week when I tagged along on a work night out to celebrate my sister (and others) end of training for their new positions. The majority of people on this night out were from upstairs, but thanks to my old friend alcohol, a few drinks down the line and I’m anybody’s. Drink has always been a fabulous way to unwind and get to know people, even people who you’ve previously only nodded a hello to them in the corridor. Now i’m laughing and joking with them while drinking down double jack daniels!

An actual proper work night out is scheduled for next friday night, or at least I hope it is, i had such fun that I’m itching to go out with them again. I even went out and brought some new clothes – partly because of my diet, my clothes are all too baggy, and partly because of my criminal lack of smart ‘going out’ clothes. Whenever I go out normally now, it always seems to be a pub, so I have no ‘town’ clothes. Clothing that means I wont get turned away at Lloyds…

Sticking with the ILF, we had an annual conference a few weeks back. It was actually the first annual conference they had, but it is good for what it was. Basically an event to get everyone involved with the ILF together in one building. I stuck around only for the first part of the day, not sticking around for the dinner or drinks, but i could see the merits of meeting these people. We even got a show from Natasha Wood (she is one of the ILF users), who has a one woman show visiting various towns, cities and countries, all about her life and how her disability (she has Spinal Muscular Atrophy) has both helped and hindered her throughout her life. It’s well worth seeing, both funny and touching, and worth the day off work to see!

Work is great, my weight loss (6 stone and counting) is great and even Nottingham Forest are playing great. Finally we’re seeing the real deal from Forest. While we’re still a way from being champions, we seem to be finally competing at this level, this is what all of us fans have craved since we got relegated from the Premier League 10 years ago. Okay, one season in 2003 might have been brilliant, but aside from that we’ve never really convinced as challengers at this level. After a run of matches this year where we’ve played so well but come away with nothing, it’s good that we are now reaping the rewards of our efforts. On an unbeaten streak, we’ve been camping out in 7th and 8th these last few weeks, keeping within touching distance of the top due to the fickle nature of this league. One week Newcastle are top, then it’s Cardiff, then Middlesborough. We’re three points behind current leaders Newcastle, but equal or better than them in terms of quality. We could beat any team in this league on our day, but despite all this we do still have our inconsistencies, not least our ‘one half good, one half bad’ syndrome which we can’t shake! (take the Newcastle game as a prime example)

I’m just chuffed that it’s nearly November and we’re 8th. We’re competing in this stupendously competitive league. While a promotion this year is beyond us, a playoff place chase certainly isn’t, and it’ll put us in good stead for the next few years where hopefully we can step up and be genuine promotion contenders. It’s been 10 years since we were at the top, finally we seem to be headed back towards there.

I’ve been enjoying my Xbox 360, it’s good to have this console again. I bought Saints Row 2 and Fifa 10 recently. Saints Row 2 is a great game, this is how I’d have preferred GTA 4 to be like, a bit more tongue-in-cheek and silly. That’s not to say that I didn’t like GTA, but having played San Andreas, playing Saints Row 2 seemed like a ’sequel’. And Fifa 10, it’s a great game. Really good. I’m happy that Fifa have finally stepped up, after years of shit football games. The football is natural, controls are easy and the graphics are excellent. I wholeheartedly recommend this game!

And before I go, I got an invite to Google Wave the other day. I was intrigued as anyone to see what the fuss was all about. Google Wave is like a glorified Google Mail with a tacked on ability of real-time instant messaging. This means you actually see the words appear on the screen as the other person is writing them, there is also the chance to upload a ton of media as well as the ability to group edit anything that has been added/uploaded. It’s much easier to explain when you’ve used it, but something to remember before using it, is that it needs a fast (FAST) machine to run smoothly. My Mac seems to run it okay, but my work PC struggles big time. It’s worth a look, but I can’t say it’s changed my life. Google have plenty of work to do on this, so until then it’s little more than an interesting oddity.

Plenty of money to burn…

About a week later and a chance to reflect on the things that were exciting me in my last blog post.

I bought the Xbox. I decided to go for the deal that included Call of Duty 4, Fight Night 4 and Tiger Woods 2010. I’d gone in a few days previous to have some over eager employee attempt to convince to wait a while and get the ’super’ Elite – a 250gb model – that came with the new Call of Duty or the new Forza. I let him down gently by explaining I hadn’t got the money yet, so when it came to going to buy the console I gave that guy a wide berth and just went straight to the till. Apparently Call of Duty was sold out, and the other games in the bundle deal (Halo 3, GTA 4) were of no interest to me, so i threatened to just walk out and go somewhere else, but they offered me the console with just the two games.

The noisiness of the Xbox 360 came flooding back after the almost complete silence I get from my PS3, but otherwise it was as you were. Now when a game comes out for just the one console, I can get it! This of course refers to the Xbox exclusive Grand Theft Auto games, as well as possibly Crackdown 2 when it comes out. On the flipside of the coin, I also won’t miss out when Heavy Rain comes out for the Playstation 3. Oh to have the luxury of choice! The Xbox also sits neatly under my telly, the blackness of the Elite fitting in well with my DVD player.

Aside from the console buying excessiveness, it’s been a good week. I went to Goose Fair with my parents and sister on Wednesday, about half an hour before it was officially open – so it was dead quiet. By the time we left at 7pm, it had got a hell of a lot busier. We also got a glimpse of celebrity weatherman Des Coleman! Yes!

On Thursday, it was the ‘work lunch’. It was a good idea to get to know my team better, though in the month i’ve been working there I feel i’ve got to know everyone pretty well. Even so, anything to feel part of the ‘gang’ is fine by me – and what a place to have dinner. Savai restaurant is across the road from us, in the part of Nottingham that I imagine never gets too busy, nevertheless it seems pretty popular, and my sister seems to know of its popularity. With it being a pizzeria, it had to be a pizza that I ordered. Only £7 and it was massive. A Tropicale (Ham & Pineapple!) was a great choice. Sadly,  I seemed to eating a lot faster than my workmates, it wasn’t a surprise to me – what with my history of being a fat bastard and that – but I didn’t want to look too greedy in front of them! I did manage to slow down towards the end, but it was such good pizza that greed got the better of me…

I mildly annoyed that I seem to have forgotten how to sleep in. I went to bed at 1AM last night, but I still woke up at 7.30 this morning! It seems that i’ve gotten used to being an early riser. Damn my adaptability!!

Joining the Elite

It’s been four weeks since I started my new job at the ILF, i know it’s been that amount of time because I received my payslip the other day!

So, a month of hard work (!) and I get rewarded with £50 short of a grand. It was very pleasing to be given that on Friday, shame I won’t get it deposited into my account until Wednesday – last day of September and that – but i’ve earmarked the money already. Bills are most important, as is board of course, but i’m rewarding myself with a big fat treat. I’m going to buy an Xbox 360 Elite.

Iain is to blame, he showed me a game or two on his Xbox last weekend. There’s also the redesigned Xbox Live and the fact that Iain is planning on getting Call of Duty 4 and playing it online. The best thing about that game is the multiplayer, i’d love to get in on the action! I only ever got rid of my 360 in the first place because of what I believed it did to my games. I had Assassins Creed and was annoyed that the 360 scratched it so badly that it wouldn’t load. I was furious. It also did a similar thing to my copy of Burnout Paradise.

What with the release of Grand Theft Auto 4 just around the corner, I decided to trade it all in for a PS3 and be sure that no disc-scratching antics would happen on my new console. A good while after I’d done all this I found out the reason as to why the 360 scratched up the discs so badly. I’d changed the way I had my 360 standing, from horizontal to vertical. Apparently the 360 has a hard time reading the discs properly when it’s on its side, so it scratches them. I’m not entirely sure how or why, but here I was blaming my console for ruining the games when all along I was to blame.

By this point I’d had my PS3 and was happy with it, and still am! It’s just that I miss the 360, have more friends on Xbox Live than on the PSN, and am now in a position to spunk £200 on a new toy!

Back to my new job, I’m happy that I’ve made a good enough impression on them. My one to one meeting went well, my team (all 5 of them!) seem happy enough with how well i’m doing and how well i have adapted. I just need to keep this up so when it comes to the end of my contract, they renew it rather than pass. The one major obstacle in my path its the likely change of government next year. David Cameron isn’t a great fan of these offshoots of the DWP like us, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens next year. What hasn’t helped the ILF at all is what was reported in the Sunday Times the other week. Oh dear…!

Big week this week, getting paid, Goose Fair is on, a ‘working lunch’ on Thursday where all of our team go to the local Italian restaurant for a bite to eat and the likely purchase of a new console. Yay!

Bad kits are bad, mmkay?

I’ve just noticed the awfulness of the 2nd Nottingham Forest goalkeeper shirt. I’ve seen the new one they brought out a few weeks back, and it looks fine, but a quick glance at the online club shop and i’ve found this monstrosity!

Not quite at the level of some shocking kits of the past, but not far off. A lot of Forest fans aren’t too enamoured with our new kits, but I quite like ‘em. It could be down to the fact that I’ve slimmed down enough to get into one for the first time in a while. I intend going to watch Forest sometime soon (due to my newly free Saturdays), so what better excuse to splash out on new tops! Sports Direct also seem to be selling them cheaper than the club shop, and with the sponsor already added. Which is nice.

New Era

It’s been a week since I started work at the ILF. I haven’t regretted switching jobs at all, from what I’ve done so far – I love it!

The first day was a bit overwhelming. The sheer amount of information I was being told never seemed to end. I was being told about aspects of my job using lingo I hadn’t heard before. Thankfully in the following days it all began to make sense once I put what I’d been told into practise.

It’s a relaxed atmosphere. I suppose civil service work is never too strenuous, this job doesn’t rely on sales or suchlike, so people never get too irritable. I’ve been made to feel welcome by everyone. My sister had mentioned this, along with how it’s not shameful to ask for help, but I was struck by how they’d be only too happy to help me out.

After a day or two I got a handle on things, now it is all coming quite easy. I’ve still to get on the switchboard, but that’s something I’m not really bothered about. I don’t much care for phonework, but if the job requires it, I’ll do it – and I’ll do it well!

These past few days I’ve been on another trip to London to visit my brother. I’m really starting to get to know this corner of north London quite well! He was moving from his (and his fiancée’s) shared house just off Turnpike Lane to a flat closer to Wood Green high street.

The flat is a million times better, is off the main road so is quiet, and has a settee bed so I can stay over! That’s what we (me + parents) did yesterday. A good time was had by all, except for me today… I got a diarrhea bug earlier, couldn’t last five minutes without having to go! The question was, how was I going to last a car journey up the M1? The answer? Immodium! (or Boots own-brand equivalent) It staved it off for long enough, but the effects of today are catching up with me and I feel shattered. I’m not entertaining the thought of calling in sick in my first few weeks, so an early night tonight should do the trick. I think maybe my lack of sleep throughout the week may have helped me getting ill.

I’m actually looking forward to going back to work tommorow. Been a long time since I’ve said that.