Not been a great few days. One of our pet cats, Oscar, had to be put down last Friday. He’d had a lump develop on his neck, and after a deterioration, and news that the cancerous lump was spreading, we had to have him put down.

He was genuinely one of the nicest cats there was. Our other cat, Bruce, is affectionate only when it seems he wants something (food, to go out). Oscar was affectionate for no reason, he loved us and we all loved him. I know it’s affected everyone in the family because my Dad cried after they’d been to the vets, and he never cries. I’m happy that he’s not suffering anymore, but that’s about all i’m happy about.

Life really does suck sometimes, a cat with such a nice nature is forced to die in such an awful way. We’d saved him from the RSPCA, where it had been obvious he’d been mistreated by previous owners, and he always seemed eternally grateful. I’d decided last Wednesday to get a new camcorder to video him before he passed on, but events transpired against me. It’s made me more determined to video/photograph Bruce more than ever before. I think the worst thing about deaths, human or pet, is when you start to forget. I’m determined not to let that happen.

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.

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!!

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!

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.

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.

I’m not trying to defend Nathan Tyson here, he really should’ve thought twice before he did his flag waving. BUT…

The whole incident has really got to me. Tyson was heading around the ground with the flag he’d took off the ball boy (NOT pulled it up himself from the ground as almost all newspaper reports would have you believe). He was blatantly headed towards the Brian Clough stand, staying a good distance away from the Derby fans in the Bridgford End. He then gets pushed towards those fans by a couple of Derby players. Other Forest players then get involved, notably Dexter Blackstock, and all hell seems to break loose.

Okay, had the incident been reported like that, both clubs and a fair few of the players would’ve got the fines they deserved and it would have been put down to nothing more than a feisty local derby. Then the comments came… Of all people in the game preaching about the rights and wrongs of football, we get Robbie Savage condemning Forest and Tyson for the ‘disgraceful scenes’ and ‘celebrating like they’d stayed up’. Then there was Nigel Clough and his snide remarks that he didn’t see the incident “i was in the changing rooms like any decent manager should be” (Davies was on the pitch at the time). Finally, to rub salt into the wounds, we get some nobody called Gary Teale claiming “Tyson’s flag day doesn’t seem like the brightest thing he’s ever done, but then maybe he’s not the brightest individual”. It should also be noted that Savage again laid into Tyson, saying “He’s never played in the premiership, yet he was giving it all that at the final whistle”.

So we get all this abuse, and thanks to Mr Savage and his self serving publicity, we come out of it as the bad guys. The papers focused solely on the incident, all comments were from the Derby perspective. The Football League Show had Steve Claridge stick up for his old mate Robbie Savage and condemn Forest for their actions. It seems to me that because Derby feel hard done to, they’ve engineered the situation to their own ends, they lost but they are ‘the moral winners’. Savage seems to forget about his scarf waving when Derby beat us last year, or when he mentioned it – he claimed it not to be half as bad as what Tyson got up to.

I’d like to think that the FA will see sense and not come down too harshly on Forest, but i can’t see it. Derby knew exactly what they were doing in sending Savage out for the post match comments, he’s the expert in shit-stirring. And he succeeded.

Nothing much to report in these past two weeks. I’m still hotly anticipating my new job, counting down the days until I leave Royal Mail. Elsewhere, the football season has started up again and once more Forest get us all hyped up for nothing…

Back to the new job, I gave in my notice last Friday. Seeing as I don’t start at the ILF until Tuesday the 1st, I thought it best to leave the Thursday before, so I have an extended bank holiday break before all the hard work starts.

When I gave in my notice I asked my manager about the possibility of getting the last week off, seeing as I’m leaving anyway it wouldn’t matter if I’m there or not. He told me how you accure days off for every 13 you work and that that would determine how many days I could get off – at this point things began to go over my head, I’m still not entirely sure what he means or how they work it all out.

The hope was I could finish this Friday, giving me a whole week off. The reality is I only get an extra couple of days off. Hopefully I’ll get a bumper last wage slip as I’m owed two weeks holiday! I’m a bit frustrated at not finishing earlier, but I’m keen on leaving Royal Mail on good terms, so I’m not going to kick up a fuss.

I just want to slip away quietly on Tuesday, the people I dislike at that place far outnumber the people I like, so the last thing I want is to be fake with people I’ve never got along with. One other thing is that people forget about you and move on after a day or two, unless you’re a character, which I’m certainly not.

I had to shop for smart clothes for my new job, it’s not a shirt & tie job by any stretch, but for the first few days at least I want to look smart and presentable. When I get more comfortable I’ll turn up in jeans and a t-shirt – few months later some joggers and a crumpled top

Now I have a Monday to Friday job once again, I can watch forest on a more regular basis. Though the way in which they’ve started the season hasn’t exactly filled me with excitement. It’s hopefully a case of getting all the bad results out of the way early on, but two losses and a draw hardly encourages me to spend £30 (!) to watch the reds. I will, however, buy a new Forest top. I’ve seen them in Sports Direct and they look a lot better in person. Plus they’re selling them with sponsors already printed on, despite the club shops insistance that they were the only place to do that.

So, after three long years at Royal Mail, I’ve now entered the endgame. Can’t wait!!

Circumstances can change ever so quickly…

My last blog post was a moan about how I missed out on a new job by ‘just a few marks’. I’d got over it, contemplating working at Royal Mail for the forseeable, but then I got a call from a withheld number yesterday afternoon.

I was told should any vacancies arise in the next 6 months, I’ll be automatically offered the job – they phoned yesterday to do just that. I was guessing that maybe one of the new recruits who had pipped me to the post last month had maybe dropped out, but it turns out a new area is being created – in a sense a job has been created for me.

My new employers (!) are the ILF – Independent Living Funds (I think!) – they deal with funding for disabled people who choose to live independently. The office is split into regions, different teams working on cases from all over the country. My sister seems to think I’ll be part of a brand new Devon/South West region. Hopefully it will involve regular trips down there…

The job I have is plain and simple. Admin Assistant, otherwise known as the office bitch! I do the menial stuff to help out the other guys in the team. In so many ways this is a step up from my current job and also an actual real office – unlike that godawful box factory office job I had three years ago.

The contract is only for six months (the original job I went for was a year long contract), it could be seen as a bit of a risk to leave a steady job I’ve had at Royal Mail – but I need to escape that place. Sometimes in life you take risks that could pay off, I believe this is one of them. My sister was employed there initially on a four month contract, and is still there a year on, so there is every chance I could get a more long-term contract if I’m good at what I do. Plus, people come and go, vacancies will arise, so I’m not too worried about that.

I’m just pondering who to put forward as references. I hope I can use Royal Mail as one, but how would that look for an employer to receive a request for a reference for someone who is still employed by them? Not sure. I’ve been at Royal Mail long enough to see off many former references. Former managers at Asda and Makro have come and gone. I can only really think that the Playgroup might be my best bet.

The job doesn’t start until the 1st of September, so I’m going to take advantage of that and book some time off, quietly giving in my notice so I don’t have to work my final week.

The deal breaker for me in this job was the opportunity to have my own desk and phone extension! Yeah!

I’m now back home, after the Jersey trip and after a weekend down in London. It’s been a long week!

I enjoyed Jersey, it’s a lovely little island that feels like Devon & Cornwall mixed in with France – obviously helped by all the road signs being in french and all that – you feel like you’re still in the UK but at the same time it feels foreign. It’s quite odd. The weather out there was a mixed bag, but when the sun was out it was warm and pleasant, and that also coincided with me taking some of the better pictures. The beaches, villages etc. always look better when the sun is out.

The hotel was fine, everything you expect of a four star hotel, just a shame that the free hotel wifi didn’t reach my room! The hotel was also a ten minute walk toward the town centre, so I was certainly getting some exercise out there. I’d recommend Jersey to anyone who is thinking of going there, it’d make a brilliant holiday. I’ve took a ton of pictures, but seeing as they all need to be edited to get ‘em up to scratch, it could be some time before they appear on Flickr.

Of course, i was enjoying this break until I received a phone call on the Thursday. It was in reply to the interview I had the other week. I was unsuccessful. After the past week of my family and sister being overly positive about my chances of getting the job, it turns out that “We just don’t have the vacancies at the moment”. Now, the fact that they said that other than the typical “You just weren’t good enough” left me wondering if there was more to it, and a phone call from my sister Megan (who works there, of course!) led me to think that I would have got the job if the law of sod hadn’t come into play…

Basically, an employee who fancied returning to work after a FIVE YEAR career break, chose the same week that I had my interview to tell the company of her intentions to return, so they were duty bound to offer her the old job back, thus taking out one of the five vacancies they had going. Conversations with my sister since all this and I’ve learnt that had she not decided to return to work, I’d have got the job. It also transpires that I passed the skills test and the actual interview, which they score, but seeing as I had the lowest pass score out of all the applicants, I was the one who had to miss out when it came to deciding who got the four remaining vacancies. To say I’m disappointed is an understatement. If I’d been just no good for the job, then fair enough, but I was so CLOSE to getting a new job, only for things to go against me when it really matters.

However, when you ‘pass’ the interview but don’t get a job, they keep you on a reserve list for six months. That means if any vacancy – similar to the job i applied for – arises between now and January, I will be offered the position. That’s even without an interview. My sister remains confident that a new vacancy will open up in the coming months, but I’m not so optimistic. When you’re that close to getting a new job it all goes tits up, it does make you err on the side of pessimism. It also means that I go back to work this week with the prospect of NOT handing in my notice today, forced to carry on working at Royal Mail for the foreseeable. Great.

So, that didn’t help me enjoy the last few days of the Jersey break, but not to worry – London was next. Iain and Aleks are going to Bulgaria soon so it was a chance to see them before they jet off in a week or two. I love London, don’t care what anyone else thinks, i love that city.

We looked more closely around where he lives, Wood Green, before going into Central London for some food. We ended up on Tottenham Court Road and I saw for the first time all of the electrical shops that it is famed for. When the time comes for my new DSLR (and the time is close!) I’ll be certain to take a trip down there. So many places to shop!

We ate at this restaurant near to the British Museum. It was a Turkish place called Tas. A chain of restaurants all around London, this was some excellent food. By far and away the brst Turkish food I have tasted. Couple that with excellent service, it’s somewhere that I’ll be telling people to go if ever they are in that part of the city. Brilliant stuff!

Yesterday, we found ourselves in Tottenham. This place is a treasure trove of European supermarkets. They have all sorts of odd foreign chocolate bars, varieties of cheese, meat and crazy flavoured fizzy drinks (SuperMalt anyone?). I could also see White Hart Lane from where we were, even though Spurs were the other side of London yesterday.

So, a long week which was enjoyable on the whole, except for the crushing disappointment of Thursday!