Thursday, October 28, 2004
New hair and come hither smile. It's dyed darker all over with highlights on the sides and in the fringe. You can only see the highlights when it's pinned up with clips to give it a more interesting look. It's been a good week so far, I did two late agreements with Claude and Adam at Landmark - Adam played referee while Claude and I played ontological tennis until he shut us in a room and told us both to spend 5 minutes shouting at each other one at a time while the othe listened. It worked really well and we are back on track. Claude is a great friend but we don't half bicker - I think it's the sagitarius way. Good news that tha house is on the market and that Toby go the Job I waas thrilled when he rang on Monday lunchtime. We went to Dirty Dicks for a celebratory pub lunch and pint.
Monday, October 25, 2004
I got the job!!! :)
The 2nd interview turned out to be at 9am! I would have had to get up at 5am if I'd gone from here, so I stayed over at my parent's place. Currently they're on a cruise and there's some house-swap friends staying, but they didn't mind - in fact they were happy to meet me . They were very nice, made me a bit of food and had a chat.
Anyway, this morning, I saw the system, met the head manager, had a chat, and she offered me the job... so I said yes!
I'm half excited, half stunned!
The 2nd interview turned out to be at 9am! I would have had to get up at 5am if I'd gone from here, so I stayed over at my parent's place. Currently they're on a cruise and there's some house-swap friends staying, but they didn't mind - in fact they were happy to meet me . They were very nice, made me a bit of food and had a chat.
Anyway, this morning, I saw the system, met the head manager, had a chat, and she offered me the job... so I said yes!
I'm half excited, half stunned!
Friday, October 22, 2004
Well, I had a busy day yesterday!
I’d taken the day off because I had an interview in Cambridge and because I wanted to go to “Preview” – a trade fair about arcade games. Unfortunately my interview was scheduled for 12, which I thought meant I’d waste the morning, and miss most of the show and get little out of it. However I was wrong on both counts.
Firstly, we’ve decided to put our flat on the market. We want to sell before winter really closes in and sales drop off. Reciently we managed to find an estate agent who would make changes to the contract and a few days ago they came round to pick up keys and drop in the revised version. I decided to check the contract through and make a copy, then tidy the flat throughout (in case the photographer could come today). I then took the contract to the agency (just round the corner) and spent a few minutes chatting. And I still managed to get to Kings cross with about 1/2h to spare!
So, I’ve got 45m on the train to get to Cambridge – a perfect time to have a 20 min call with the head team leader at Landmark all about what I want to get out of the Team Leader Program!
Once at Cambridge, I hopped in a cab and we struggled through traffic to the software company where I was having my interview. I was a bit worried at our lack of speed, but we got there just on time. I walked in and was instantly greeted and whisked to the top of the building to a room with a dozen computers and a table. I thought for a moment they were going to sit me at a PC, but they just gave me two tests on paper.
The first was a personality quiz. For each question I had to allocate 10 points to the possible answers, which was fairly easy for the questions such as ‘My strengths in dealing with groups are…’ but painfully difficult for ‘In meetings, I’m let down by my…’
Still, when they went through it at the end, it turned out I’ve got the right personality for a developer and innovator, so that’s ok!
And then it was the technical test – various questions on C, ranging from a fairly simple ‘What could go wrong with this code and what does it do?’ (it copied a string and you could run into memory problems) to a couple of really challenging questions with hidden twists. I went back to one, which was ‘What’s the output from this program?’ as I’d given up after 1/2 a page of working out loops and logic. Luckly when I went back I realised that, logically, part of the program would never actually be run, and the ouput was really, really simple.
When they went through it, each page had a couple of ticks on it. I’d got everything right! I was dead chuffed and actually exclaimed ‘ooh, I’m impressed!’ before I realised that it wasn’t me who was supposed to say that, lol. It turns out that I was the only candidate to get 100% and they want me back for a second interview on Monday :)
So, feeling pretty good, I headed back to London to go to ‘Preview’, the trade fair for arcade and casino games. Because the interview was quite long, I only had 2h at the fair, but it was excellent.
Did I say why I wanted to go? No? Well we’ve been saying for some time that we want to start a business when we get to Ely. We’ve been discussing a café, but it came to me a week or two ago that an arcade could be easy to set up and profitable. The idea would be to make it a safe place for teenagers to hang out and enjoy themselves. There’d be no smoking or drinking and there’d be settees and simple food as well as good music and games – video games, pool, dance machines etc but no gambling. And luckly this event came up just when I was trying to find out some information.
So, armed with my idea, I braved the suits (lucky I’d been to an interview and was suited myself) and brazened my way to my first contact, Leon Deith of the Deith Group. We’d had a couple of emails, so it wasn’t entirely out of the blue, but he was obviously a ‘player’ in the industry (if you’ll excuse the pun) so it was great to be able to have a few words with him. He’s very willing to assist in the setup of the new business once we’ve found our location.
I visited quite a few more sites, collecting a ton of brochures and getting a lot of ideas. I visited the Sega stand and found out about purchace prices and expected ‘take’ and a lovely couple who run a huge £100k play centre in Gainsborough. It’s got a gym, crèche and a 5000 sq ft climbing frame with slides etc, strong enough for adults and teens. I think it’s the sort of thing Christine sometimes talks about – a real lesure centre.
Some of the stands looked at me like I was an alien because my badge didn’t have a company name on it, shock! But others were just great. At the end of the day with about 15min to go, I ended up at Brent Sales. Right from the start they were joking with me and Danny, the salesman, sat me down at one of the more comfortable machines and talked for about 45mins about the industry. Yes, that’s right, he was chatting with me 1/2 hour after the event had closed!
Danny told me lots of useful information about the cost of machines, the average take per month, financing etc. Brent can help design the layout of the arcade and help in choosing which games to buy. He also told me about the newest innovations, a bit of history and the industry ‘seasons’. It was great!
And did I go home and collapse? No I didn’t! I was due to go to Landmark to assist in my role as Team Leader in the Registration Fulfilment Department for the Landmark Forum. And I had a great evening calling people, ensuring that they’re set up to get the most out of the Forum.
And *then* I went home and collapsed in front of the Matrix and then to bed :)
Phew, long post!
I’d taken the day off because I had an interview in Cambridge and because I wanted to go to “Preview” – a trade fair about arcade games. Unfortunately my interview was scheduled for 12, which I thought meant I’d waste the morning, and miss most of the show and get little out of it. However I was wrong on both counts.
Firstly, we’ve decided to put our flat on the market. We want to sell before winter really closes in and sales drop off. Reciently we managed to find an estate agent who would make changes to the contract and a few days ago they came round to pick up keys and drop in the revised version. I decided to check the contract through and make a copy, then tidy the flat throughout (in case the photographer could come today). I then took the contract to the agency (just round the corner) and spent a few minutes chatting. And I still managed to get to Kings cross with about 1/2h to spare!
So, I’ve got 45m on the train to get to Cambridge – a perfect time to have a 20 min call with the head team leader at Landmark all about what I want to get out of the Team Leader Program!
Once at Cambridge, I hopped in a cab and we struggled through traffic to the software company where I was having my interview. I was a bit worried at our lack of speed, but we got there just on time. I walked in and was instantly greeted and whisked to the top of the building to a room with a dozen computers and a table. I thought for a moment they were going to sit me at a PC, but they just gave me two tests on paper.
The first was a personality quiz. For each question I had to allocate 10 points to the possible answers, which was fairly easy for the questions such as ‘My strengths in dealing with groups are…’ but painfully difficult for ‘In meetings, I’m let down by my…’
Still, when they went through it at the end, it turned out I’ve got the right personality for a developer and innovator, so that’s ok!
And then it was the technical test – various questions on C, ranging from a fairly simple ‘What could go wrong with this code and what does it do?’ (it copied a string and you could run into memory problems) to a couple of really challenging questions with hidden twists. I went back to one, which was ‘What’s the output from this program?’ as I’d given up after 1/2 a page of working out loops and logic. Luckly when I went back I realised that, logically, part of the program would never actually be run, and the ouput was really, really simple.
When they went through it, each page had a couple of ticks on it. I’d got everything right! I was dead chuffed and actually exclaimed ‘ooh, I’m impressed!’ before I realised that it wasn’t me who was supposed to say that, lol. It turns out that I was the only candidate to get 100% and they want me back for a second interview on Monday :)
So, feeling pretty good, I headed back to London to go to ‘Preview’, the trade fair for arcade and casino games. Because the interview was quite long, I only had 2h at the fair, but it was excellent.
Did I say why I wanted to go? No? Well we’ve been saying for some time that we want to start a business when we get to Ely. We’ve been discussing a café, but it came to me a week or two ago that an arcade could be easy to set up and profitable. The idea would be to make it a safe place for teenagers to hang out and enjoy themselves. There’d be no smoking or drinking and there’d be settees and simple food as well as good music and games – video games, pool, dance machines etc but no gambling. And luckly this event came up just when I was trying to find out some information.
So, armed with my idea, I braved the suits (lucky I’d been to an interview and was suited myself) and brazened my way to my first contact, Leon Deith of the Deith Group. We’d had a couple of emails, so it wasn’t entirely out of the blue, but he was obviously a ‘player’ in the industry (if you’ll excuse the pun) so it was great to be able to have a few words with him. He’s very willing to assist in the setup of the new business once we’ve found our location.
I visited quite a few more sites, collecting a ton of brochures and getting a lot of ideas. I visited the Sega stand and found out about purchace prices and expected ‘take’ and a lovely couple who run a huge £100k play centre in Gainsborough. It’s got a gym, crèche and a 5000 sq ft climbing frame with slides etc, strong enough for adults and teens. I think it’s the sort of thing Christine sometimes talks about – a real lesure centre.
Some of the stands looked at me like I was an alien because my badge didn’t have a company name on it, shock! But others were just great. At the end of the day with about 15min to go, I ended up at Brent Sales. Right from the start they were joking with me and Danny, the salesman, sat me down at one of the more comfortable machines and talked for about 45mins about the industry. Yes, that’s right, he was chatting with me 1/2 hour after the event had closed!
Danny told me lots of useful information about the cost of machines, the average take per month, financing etc. Brent can help design the layout of the arcade and help in choosing which games to buy. He also told me about the newest innovations, a bit of history and the industry ‘seasons’. It was great!
And did I go home and collapse? No I didn’t! I was due to go to Landmark to assist in my role as Team Leader in the Registration Fulfilment Department for the Landmark Forum. And I had a great evening calling people, ensuring that they’re set up to get the most out of the Forum.
And *then* I went home and collapsed in front of the Matrix and then to bed :)
Phew, long post!
Sunday, October 17, 2004
This is my view! I'm sitting on the sofa with my laptop. I've been on the phone quite alot today. I love sundays for that. First Kari, we spent at least an hour chatting. Then after a spate of housework, I rang dad and proposed he bought Janet a new bike, he thought it a good idea, mobility being very important and she wants to be able to cycle with Maaike on the bike and quite right too.
This is the wonderful clean fireplace. I bet Chantal thinks it's about as childproof as a box of matches, and she would be right! Lots of pointy fluffy sticks, bottle perched precariously and cd's for children to fiddle with... The picture doesn't do the sticks justice. They look really cool, the white blobs are cotton plant. I went to columbia road flower market last week and got some pink,orange,purple,green and blue heather for the window box, they love it, it's been pissing down all week so the heather is in paradise. It looks really chearful and bright.
We went to see Siouxie and Budgie do their 25 year repetoire with the millenium orchestra, the bloke from the Kodo drummers, some guest musicians and a very good light show. It was excellent. They went on from 8.30 - 9.30 and then 10 - 11.15 and the last 3 numbers, including helter skelter and peepshow the whole place was standing and dancing. It was awesome. It was great to see all the goths come out of the woodwork too!
It's been a whole fortnight since my last blog. That's far too much to be catching up on. I've been up to alot since the 3rd. I interviewed for a job selling land commission only and then a job in the police. They took me back in record time which, I can only take as a complement. I'm in CID admin which is infinately better than cameras. The team are a good laugh and the work is interesting too. I imput the crimes and allocate them to the detectives who are nice people too. There is an overwheming sence of empty and meaningless which is probably alot to do with how significant their jobs are. The most serious and significant people tend to have the most meaningless lives so it is logical that the other way round is true too.
The flat is sparkly and clean, we are really selling the flat this time. The agent is coming round tomorrow and then sometime during the week they will take some photos and it will be on the market good and proper.
The flat is sparkly and clean, we are really selling the flat this time. The agent is coming round tomorrow and then sometime during the week they will take some photos and it will be on the market good and proper.
Sunday, October 03, 2004
This week has been long but has also gone quickly. It was nice to have a week off to sort things out. I should have an interview Monday afternoon or Tuesday. Funny, it seems like Sunday but it's Saturday. We went up to Cambridge on Friday (probably why it feels like Sunday) and had a lovely day wondering around afterToby's interview. The interview went OK. Toby didn't think he'd got it but later on Friday he got a call saying he was through to the 2nd interview this coming Wednesday. Fingers crossed. Friday afternoon we did a tour of the estate agents in Ely to see if there really were any decent houses for under 150k in Ely and we were right. Yes! So armed with a load of paper we headed to M&D's house. They had set up a viewing for Saturday morning to see a house that was too much for us but may have had potential renovation profit. So we took the plunge and set up another couple of viewings. The one we saw first thing had potential as a place for us to start off, 140k 2 bed, nothing really needing doing to it. Toby could get a mortgage and it would work as a place for us for a good couple of years. If Toby gets the job on Wednesday, we may just be putting in an offer. Things could be moving quickly...The only obstacle there would be selling this place quick enough.
All the other places needed more money and work doing than we could cope with right now but it was really enjoyable to get into the possibilities.
This evening when we got back to London I got dressed up and went for a drink with the old communicare crowd. It was just about bearable until I found out who the new girl was and that she'd been interviewed and offered the job before they'd told me I was out on my ear. That was quite hard to be with. Understandable, that they carry on interviewing during the trial period but to work on any teething problems before kicking someone out would be useful too. It seemed a very heartless and calculating way of ensuring they get staff unlikely to answer back. One thing that I was left with at the end of the evening was how resigned, trapped, powerless and miserable they all were. Safe in the knowledge they'd kept their heads down until the end of the trial period and that at least now they wouldn't be shown the door quite so readily. I do feel that 'I'm not good enough' thing even though I can't really see what at. I learned quickly and got the job done. I just didn't like the bitching and made it clear that I thought there were better ways of communicating than gossip and winging. Not good, naive and no one likes a smart arse.
I'm not sure I should hang out, it reminds me I failed at being a doormat and succeeded in getting my self fired for the first time in my life. I have come close in the past but stayed in control. I need to gather the knowledge and confidence to start my own business. The best plan may be to learn to drive and do a market stall in the market towns in East Anglia, doing a different one every day and Ely on a Thursday and Saturday. Build up a client base then move on to shop number one.
One way or another the first investment when we move will be training and building up knowledge in starting and making successful businesses. Once that starts to take shape things will look very different.
I'm really knakkered, it's a quarter to one and time for bed. It's about time Chantal emailed me by the way...
All the other places needed more money and work doing than we could cope with right now but it was really enjoyable to get into the possibilities.
This evening when we got back to London I got dressed up and went for a drink with the old communicare crowd. It was just about bearable until I found out who the new girl was and that she'd been interviewed and offered the job before they'd told me I was out on my ear. That was quite hard to be with. Understandable, that they carry on interviewing during the trial period but to work on any teething problems before kicking someone out would be useful too. It seemed a very heartless and calculating way of ensuring they get staff unlikely to answer back. One thing that I was left with at the end of the evening was how resigned, trapped, powerless and miserable they all were. Safe in the knowledge they'd kept their heads down until the end of the trial period and that at least now they wouldn't be shown the door quite so readily. I do feel that 'I'm not good enough' thing even though I can't really see what at. I learned quickly and got the job done. I just didn't like the bitching and made it clear that I thought there were better ways of communicating than gossip and winging. Not good, naive and no one likes a smart arse.
I'm not sure I should hang out, it reminds me I failed at being a doormat and succeeded in getting my self fired for the first time in my life. I have come close in the past but stayed in control. I need to gather the knowledge and confidence to start my own business. The best plan may be to learn to drive and do a market stall in the market towns in East Anglia, doing a different one every day and Ely on a Thursday and Saturday. Build up a client base then move on to shop number one.
One way or another the first investment when we move will be training and building up knowledge in starting and making successful businesses. Once that starts to take shape things will look very different.
I'm really knakkered, it's a quarter to one and time for bed. It's about time Chantal emailed me by the way...
