Evidently Chicken Town
Below are the 10 most recent journal entries recorded in the "No2HYWA" journal:[<< Previous 10 entries]
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09:35 pm
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Another Brick In The Wall
Second paper of my AS Level Maths exam this morning. I did OK on most of the questions, and finally cracked one tough nut with just minutes remaining. There was just one part-question I wasn't able to do at all, and another I couldn't complete, so fingers crossed I've got something in the 80 per cent region.
Then in the late afternoon I had to head back to the college, where I was meeting Colin, one of my old lecturers, who wanted to interview me for the college magazine. The college celebrates its silver jubilee this year and as I was one of the inaugural intake of students in 1987, he wanted to include me in the magazine's jubilee special edition. He got me standing in various locations around the quad and the clock tower to have some photos done, then as it started to rain we headed for the Trafalgar pub for the interview. Colin bought me a Bulmers No. 17. After I'd given him plenty of reminiscences of my days at the alma mater, we fell to general chat about footie. Colin's owner of a Portsmouth fan website so he had plenty to say about the ongoing crisis there. We agreed Euro 2012 was likely to be interesting and that it was hard to predict a winner. I said to watch out for Germany, who these days are tearing up the stereotype and playing like Brazil.
I cheekily asked whether there were any job openings at the college - Colin said not at the moment but he'd let me know...
Current Mood:  hopeful
Current Music: Looters by Attila the Stockbroker
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07:48 pm
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Door In My Face
Opened my work email first thing this morning...to find a message from the department that offered me the MK job.
Withdrawing the offer.
Budget cuts were the reason given. Just after nine I phoned my contact in MK - who rang me only on Wednesday assuring me it was just a matter of waiting, lest we forget. She rapidly handed me over to another lady (surprise surprise). This lady told me they in MK were as disappointed as me that I wouldn't be joining them but under their new budget regime they had to reduce their AOs so that was that. She said it was mad as she knew they'd be needing more AOs in a few months, so advised me to keep my eyes on their department's job website.
So I face 7 months living like a hermit, apart from the Olympics, as I try to build a decent reserve of savings in readiness for unemployment. And the dream of escaping Chicken Town is dashed, for a few months at least.
The others in the office genuinely felt for me, that was clear, and all day my phone buzzed with sympathetic reactions on Facebook. Nice, though most of the comments in both places were of the 'something else/better will turn up' variety and the truth is that I can't even contemplate starting looking again at the moment. I will start again on 1 October.
That's not just me needing an emotional break but also driven by practical concerns : no new employer is going to give me 3 weeks off for the Olympics just after I start. And when I come back from the Games I'll have overdrawn my annual leave and will only have worked off the debt at the end of September. No point in having to write my current employers a cheque for overdrawn holiday when I leave.
What I could really do with is someone to talk to. But I can't risk giving Katherine or her kids (who are terrible for picking up infections) my cold, so I'm home alone listening to music, hoping I can keep it in for a week and focus on my maths exam, and that she'll see me next Friday when, touch wood, my cold will be gone.
In the immortal words of the Fruit Eating Bears, "Did you ever feel like King Kong hit you with a hammer? Well I do..."
May Cameron and Clegg rot in Hell.
Current Mood:  pissed off
Current Music: Crimson and Clover by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
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06:48 pm
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Shutting The Doors
Definitely coming down with a cold. Arsebiscuits.
Having consulted the Hampshire NHS Dentist search website, after work I went to Gosport's only dental surgery listed as accepting adult NHS patients, on the other side of town - to be told "Our list closed today." So it was on to a practice four and a half miles from home, in Stubbington - where the receptionist said sorry, the website lists them as having vacancies but they don't really because one of their dentists is long-term sick.
Back home, phoned one in central Fareham, who Lucie from my team at work goes to. Hooray, he can see me on the 28th of this month and they've booked a window that'll hopefully allow time for the filling.
Current Mood:  sick
Current Music: Spinning Around In The Air by The Proclaimers
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06:08 pm
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The Final Comedown
Went to Milton Keynes for the weekend, both to see some of the town in readiness for moving there and also to visit two League grounds that I hadn't been to before.
I did get a good look at the town centre and I can see myself happily living there, and on Friday night I had the pleasure of rounding off my birthday watching National Lampoon's Animal House on ITV4, but the rest of the trip was a bit of a damp squib.
It didn't help that I've had the sniffles since Saturday morning, and felt strangely tired a lot of the time. MK Dons v Walsall on Saturday wasn't a classic game, although I was glad to be there to take part in the applause for their assistant manager John Gorman who recently announced he'll be retiring from football at the end of this season, after an eventful 40 year career as player, coach and manager. Funnily enough, I received his autobiography Gory Tales for Christmas. To the disappointment of the group of grumps behind me, the Dons lost 1-0, meaning they have to play the second leg of their play-off with Huddersfield away on a Tuesday night.
Back at the hotel I tried to listen to the Dave Cash show on my laptop, but was thwarted first by the complicated procedure that getting onto the hotel's wireless internet access involved - which meant first a phone call to reception and then, after another phone call sent me into a tape loop of 'we cannot answer your call', a visit to reception which resulted in the girl there sending for the duty manager and him having to come to my room to take me through the logging-in process. The show was already 40 minutes old by then. And after all that, I kept losing the sound abruptly as the connection went down. When this happened for the fourth time in an hour I gave up and hit the hotel bar for something to eat.
Yesterday morning my Private Eye was nowhere to be found, and never did turn up. Did it slide out of my carrier bag at Stadium MK or did an over-zealous room cleaner take it for discarded?...
Yesterday was the FA Women's Premier League Cup Final at Northampton Town's Sixfields stadium, between Leeds United Ladies and Sunderland Women. Having spent the last few years watching local then regional league women's footie, I'm no longer familiar with the players from the second flight, so the only girl playing in the final that I'd heard of was Sunderland's Kelly MacDougall, whose parents I sat next to at an England U19 international in 2003. I decided that was a good enough reason to semi-support Sunderland, which was just as well as I was sat behind a row of lively young women in Sunderland shirts who'd painted their faces with 'SWFC' in red and white (I knew that stood for Sunderland Women but those initials couldn't help but make me think of Sheffield Wednesday).
Kelly missed a penalty, but Sunderland won 2-1 anyway, Natalie Gutteridge scoring both of their goals to send the girls in front of me into choruses of 'We love you Gutsy, we do'. Early in the second half a Starburst ripped a filling out of one of my wisdom teeth. Thankfully this filling wasn't one of my recent £975 set - at that price, those had better not be that jerry-built. I'd never have imagined the humble Starburst was capable of inflicting that sort of damage. It would never have happened when they were Opal Fruits!
Rather than face another near-£200 bill, this time I'm signing on with an NHS dentist.
Engineering works meant buses replaced trains between Northampton and Milton Keynes. Worse, on my way back there was some sort of problem with the buses which meant I and several others spent 45 minutes just standing around in a line at Northampton station. Finally made it back to MK just after six. Although I'm trying to cut down on junk food, by then I was hungry and world-weary so rolled into Sizzling Grill and bought some fried chicken and chips.
At least the hotel TV had Challenge so I was able to watch Impact Wrestling.
Home today via Euston, which, hallelujah, still has its Bagel Factory.
Current Mood:  tired
Current Music: Myliu Motiną Tėvynę by Vudis
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07:55 pm
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Sapphire Bullets Of Pure Love
Got a lovely load of birthday cards at the office, but after all that haring around shops my nibbles hardly got touched :( Too much dieting going on in that office. Well, they'll just get put on the table every day till they're finally finished.
This morning came the meeting I'd been looking to with trepidation, as we fixed-term temporary promotees were assembled in the Map Room and given a briefing about 'Redeployment'. In fact most of the meeting was irrelevant to me and the others who came from the telephone unit, as it was mainly concerned with the 'skills assessment forms' that most of the redeployees will have to fill in so they can be matched to vacancies. We from the Shitpool won't have that pleasure, as we'll be offered Hobson's choice - going back whence we came.
My hope was only that my end date wouldn't be brought forward from 31 December, not only because I'd rather muck out elephants for a living than work in the Shitpool again, but also because MK seem no nearer to giving me a start date, and if I am reverted down from my current grade before I move, I may become ineligible for the MK job, as it's a lateral move. Although Leon has always insisted he and Joe would block any move to revert me early, I've had a touch of the jitters ever since Cher - my replacement - arrived.
As it was, after the meeting Dionne told me she'd had my redeployment letter, and she emailed me a copy. Hallelujah - it confirmed my reversion date as 31 December. So even in the worst case scenario of MK not starting me before the end of this year and my losing the job there as a result, I have eight pay days to come, enough to build up a decent reserve of savings and allow me to resign on New Year's Eve. It will mean doing the hermit thing again, but avoiding going back to the Shitpool is well worth a few more months as a hermit.
And then, soon after Dionne forwarded the letter, a meeting invitation landed in my inbox... One more hurdle to clear, in the form of a '1-2-1 Redeployment Meeting' on the 14th. Shirley, though, now I've had the letter, this meeting would just be to rubber-stamp my 31 December date? Here's hoping, but if there is any talk to the contrary, there is going to be an almighty hoo-hah.
Current Mood: relaxed
Current Music: Angel by Shaggy feat. Rayvon
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07:15 pm
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Lost In The Supermarket
I'm off work Thursday and Friday (my actual birthday), so as far as the office is concerned my birthday is tomorrow, which means bringing in nibbles. So this afternoon I set off for Asda in search of a luxury tin of biscuits and a big tin of Celebrations. No problem, Shirley? Think again.
In Asda there was no sign of any tins of biscuits, or big tins of sweets. Stand-up curve-shaped boxes were the largest collections of chocs on offer, and biscuits came only in bog-standard packets.
I trooped along to my local newsagent, which used to sell Fruit Allsorts (which had also been absent from Asda), but no joy.
And so to Waitrose, where it was the same story as Asda - boxes of sweets only and only regular packets of biscuits. I settled for a stand-up curve-shaped box of Celebrations, a box of Waitrose's own truffles, and two packets of Fox's chocolate-coated shortcakes (my favourite luxury biscuit).
It had never crossed my mind that tins of biscuits and big tins of sweets might be sold only at Christmas. They were just among those things I took for granted would be there year round. We live and learn.
A Google search at least confirmed that Fruit Allsorts still exist, even if you can only buy them online now.
Current Mood:  blah
Current Music: Come Back From San Francisco by the Magnetic Fields
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08:37 pm
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Bus Stop
To the Smoke by Greyhound for Fisher's last game of the season, with Sevenoaks Town. As it was pouring with rain I asked Ben and Dan, via Twitter, to let me know ASAP if the game was called off - the reply came that the pitch was playable at the moment and no inspection was planned.
A sad sight greeted me at Victoria station - both Bagel Factory stalls there have followed their Waterloo sister, and the Victoria Ixxy's, into oblivion. The upstairs stall is whitewashed, partly boarded up, but the sink is still there on public view. Victims of the recession, no doubt, but it's a black day indeed when you can't get a bagel at all on a day trip to London. I had to make do with a Subway.
East Dulwich station was shut so I had to take a tube to Vauxhall - where a man was having a heated argument with one of the Underground staff over the former's son riding his scooter in the station - and then the bus to the ground.
Still pouring with rain when I arrived at the clubhouse, in time to see the last 10 minutes of Southampton v Coventry on the big screen, with Saints 4-0 up and assured of promotion. Joe and two other Fish regulars were in the bar; Joe quipped that my teeth were looking good. Soon afterwards Tim arrived, proudly wearing his Saints shirt. The London Pride tap gave only a little dribble and then stopped so I had to go for a pint of Bud.
Mark came into the bar from the boardroom, pointed through the window to the rain and the pitch, and told me with a grin that the ref had only arrived at 1.40 and that he'd persuaded him to let the game go ahead, telling him we've played in much worse (true). Mark observed with a grin that he'd been following my Facebook posts, and remarked that I have eclectic tastes in music. I readily admitted to that: "You can sum up my eclectic tastes in music like this: I have albums by the Sex Pistols and Katie Melua." On us discovering that we're both fans of classic rock and roll and pop oldies, I urged him to start listening to Dave Cash on Saturday evenings. A chat with Mark, Nicholas and Colin until five to three.
The Shed Choir were in full voice as usual. With a few new players having signed since I last attended in January, there were several new chants in addition to the old standards, but all were easy to join in. When the ref gave a free kick against us after one of our players had been fouled, we sang "Kent League refs are fucking shit", and the linesman in front of us turned round showed us the badge on his chest and said with a grin "I'm not a Kent League ref, I'm London FA." We gave him a cheer and a round of applause.
Fisher won 4-0. Millwall Dave joined us half an hour into the game, having come from the Den when the Lions' match ended - from his comments over the rest of the first half, he hadn't been too impressed with their performance in their 2-2 draw, but the news that West Ham had missed automatic promotion had raised his spirits a little.
Met Canadian Steve at half-time, and told him one of the women's matches I'd be seeing at the Olympics was Sweden v Canada at Newcastle. Steve said he'd have loved to go to some of Canada's matches; I told him there were still tickets going, but he said he'd be spending the summer backpacking. He thought Canada would have a tough job getting through their group. I asked if Kara Lang, from his home town, was still in the national side and he sadly replied that she'd had her career ended by an injury some time ago.
Dave had two mates with him, who came back from the bar at the start of the second half thinking of as many celebrity Millwall fans as they could. After exhausting the ones all of us knew, they moved on to other London teams. When they got to Arsenal, I couldn't resist mentioning my beloved Kate Lawler, whereupon Dave's mates revealed that they chatted up Kate and her sister Karen in a bar not long before she went on Big Brother. "Kate was nice, Karen was a bit of a bitch. They were well up for it," one of them reminisced; then, asked what happened, he admitted that they'd walked away and gone to talk to other girls! Epic fail. One of Dave's pals was attending his third Fisher game. In each of his first two we scored five, so after we made it four he was willing us on to score one more and keep his record intact. It wasn't to be, but none of us were complaining.
The comedy moment came when Joe chased after a ball that had gone over the perimeter fence, intending to kick it back to the players, only to land a kick square on Tim's son's buggy (thankfully unoccupied) and send it crashing to the ground. We all chanted the circus theme tune, as we do when anything comic happens on the pitch, and Mike asked if anyone had captured the moment on their phone, as it would be sure to be a massive hit on Youtube.
Said my 'have a great summer's at the final whistle, clapping the lads off as I walked round the pitch en route to the exit...
Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: Our Day Will Come by Amy Winehouse
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12:49 pm
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The Beat Goes On
At the surgery this morning my blood pressure had climbed again, to 148/90, so it's up to the 5mg dose of Ramipril - which means another blood test next month. On and on it goes.
Current Mood: blah
Current Music: Dr Love by Tina Charles
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07:30 pm
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Bye Bye Baby
Culled everyone who's been inactive for six months, please don't take it personally. Nice knowing you, very best wishes.
Current Mood: blah
Current Music: Girlfriend In A Coma by The Smiths
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06:14 pm
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My Heart Will Go On
Surgery after work for a blood pressure check with the nurse, ahead of doctor's appointment on Friday to renew my Ramipril prescription. This time I was up a little to 144/90 - not a great surprise as I've let the walking slide quite a bit lately (partly the rain we've had, partly been busy) and just before going into the surgery I'd been rushing round a couple of nearby shops in search of stamps. The nurse did predict I should be able to stay on 2.5 mg, so fingers crossed.
Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Going Away To College by Blink-182
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