BrucieWeb

Arse, we have no hot water, the boiler has lost pressure. What a pain in the arse, bet it will take ages of negotiations with our fucking stoopid landlord before we get it fixed.

Anyways, I had more important things in mind, namely, off to visit Kevin and Duncan in their new home in Sutton, where they moved on Tuesday.

Fairly simple journey, Vauxhall to Wimbledon then to Sutton. On reflection, tube to Balham and then train to Sutton would have been easier.

So, it was lovely seeing the boys, they have a super rented flat in a nice development, and have been working very hard to get evertyhing sorted, I was well impressed, I still have boxes since my move in November! They have lovely neighbours, a lovely guy called Jason introduced himself while we were having a drink outside.

They are such a nice stable couple, and very easy company.

They had organised a picnic in Cheam Park which was so lovely, just what I wanted, nice and relaxed.

View Larger Map

We went back to the flat and had some food and got ready to go out for a few drinks.

I was so fat looking and stuffed from an afternoons drinking and eating, and felt soooo uncomfortable. The boys even commented that I was looking fat. Jesus, something has to be done. I am getting fatter and fatter.

I had a very uncomfortable nights sleep, could barely breathe due to my allergic reaction to their cat, Tiger. I so wish people didn’t have cats in their houses, if almost rules me out being able to visit. I had to get up at 4am, and go looking for something to help. Amazingly, they had an asthma inhaler and that sorted me out beautifully. I really need to get my own one from the Doctors. I often feel it would help when I get breathless.

We had a lazy Sunday, breakfast, then a walk round town and lunch. I bought them lunch as a thank you for the hospitality. No biggy at £32.

We went back to the flat and Kevin took me to Sutton West station, as there were some disruptions to the service. It was like being on a ghost train. I was soooo tired and bloated. This weekend, although very relaxing, still took a lot out of me. I am super unfit and tired all the time, though, I didn’t sleep well last night.

Mike was calling me heaps on the train home, I really couldn’t be arsed with talking to him. When I finally did, when I was home, he was all worked up about having seen Stephen Wood in the queue to RVT. Big fucking wow, he is a very selfish friend, and his constant me, me, me inner turmoil dialogue is extremely tiring. It would kill him to actually take a normal decision, stop worrying about every little bloody thing, grow up and act normal for once.

I do really like him, but it is very one sided and tiring being his friend. He is very hard work, needs an unbelievable amount of reassurance and attention and is the most unreliable and inconsistent person I have ever met.

Dan annoying me, of course he has not got the water fixed. He has a friend called Ed that knows how to fix it? This beggars belief. He even went so far to say that he enjoyed having a cold shower. I am tempering my anger with the fact that this may be the impetus I have been needing to go to the gym in the mornings.

Thought I had lost my camera on the train, was really upset about it, annoyed that I would have to replace it, then found it when I got into bed under the sheets!

Off to see this tonight. Pics, set list, audio, video and journal all here apres show:

http://www.johnmayer.com/tour/show/429

UPDATE:

It was really cool, he was looking very hot:

Check the arms, he has really been working out!

I am pretty happy with the pics and video I took, esp this pic:

This guy was much closer, and has much better pics:

Set List:

Belief
I Don’t Trust Myself (With Loving You)
Bigger Than My Body
Crossroads
Slow Dancing in a Burning Room
Waiting on the World to Change
Mercy
Vultures
Wheel
No Such Thing>
Why Georgia
Stitched Up
Gravity

– encore –
Daughters
Good Love is On the Way
Say

Really gutted he didn’t play ‘Stop this Train’, he played it the day before in Manchester! Bastard.

His girlfriend was in the audience…

Some nuggets:

There is a team of the month scheme, £500 for the best team, the last team that won painted their room pink (???!!!!)

We have lots of different people working here, from 18 years olds that cant get up in the morning (that would annoy me) to 60 year old duffers

A third of our new staff don’t make it through the 3 month probation (What?? How come??)

Someone with your experience will be immediately be given 7 projects to run

You have to bring in over £30,000 per month or your out

Some people hate the fact that we have no policies and procedures (I’m one of them mate)

We have no sales people, you do the sales too (how the hell would I have time for that??)

Massive risk for me, zero risk for them. I could be out of a job in 3 months if it didn’t work out. I have a massive feeling it would be a sink or swim situation, with them having little inclination to spend time getting me up to speed, then wondering why I was struggling. Kind of thinking the zany, young, funky agency is not really me. At the Trust, I bemoan the fact that it is old, slow and stuck in the past, perhaps I am looking for a happy medium, with a decent support network. Or, am I just being massively risk adverse?

I did not take to the guy I met, David Burgess at all. He came across unprepared, unprofessional, flippant and juvenile.

Fuckit, I’m not taking it, next move has to be pretty perfect, and this is far from that.

Intrigued to see if I get it mind!

Got this this morning:

Hi Bruce

I hope all is well with you!

I would like to invite you to a 2nd interview on Thursday, either early morning (9.00 a.m.) or from 4 p.m. onwards.

Please confirm which is convenient?

Many thanks
Jane

Amusingly, while discussing it with Dad over e-mail. Wicked, slight anti-climax, only slightly, kind of thought I would get one mind you!

I mentioned it to Bob, he has offered a reference, which is very kind of him. What a great idea, he would be a big gun to have in my corner, I have been slightly concerned about the reference – seeing I am not well thought of by my current superiors, and they have no idea what I do.

If I could get Judith also, I could offer them Bob, Judith, Mark, Catherine and Liz.

Oh well, roll on Thursday – exciting indeed…no idea what the format is, or who I am meeting. I fully expected this stage mind you. Thankfully no role play, assessment or presentations required so far.

I needs one! After a particularly hectic night/day out on Saturday: Start, 8.30pm – finish, 7am!

Look n feel like shit.

Ben feels the very same. We are thinking about a three month detox pact. I really do need to sort myself out, pronto, another batch of fat red faced pics of me appeared on facebook, I fucking hate facebook for that, and I know a few culprits who have be tagged up and plasterd all over their pages within hours of whatever event ending – fucking sados!

I guess I have to change my lifestyle, I am changing a bit, the older I get, the less I can’t be bothered going to nights out that revolve solely around drinking, I could have easily not gone to Ben’s party on Saturday – I knew exactly what it was going to be like.

Still, I went, and took part in all that was to offer, and was the very last to leave, even the guests had gone to bed!!!

Had a couple of mobile calls that made my heart stop, to no avail mind you.

One happened to be that chap Jon from Hays about the edf web managers job, that is the bi-London:Brighton one.

Asked if I was still in, I am, it seemed a nice job for a dull company. They are a premier sponsor for London 2012 mind you, and it would get me to Brighton, both pluses, and they have cool adverts.

Come one RR – call!! The longer they leave it, the less likely they want me. It’s been 24h now!

UPDATE: 17:03 – Still no word, e-mailing tomorrow.

So, I’ve been down to see them at the Reading Room. I had e-mailed earlier in the day to ask who I would be meeting, and they told me I would be meeting the Director of Operations, David Burgess – whoop, nervous as hell.

Put a fake meeting in the diary and I was off. Was nervous as hell, felt my big fat face getting red.

On arrival, I was told that I would no longer be meeting with David, but with Lidia Oshlyansky, Senior User Experience Analyst. She is a clever chick:

RR Bio | UCL Page | Facebook

I immediately felt at ease with her. We had a chat about her being able to use the lift as she was with a guest, I told her a story about the Royal Society and sustainable fishing for some reason? She was really nice, she seemed to like what I was saying, and was impressed with my CV. It would be very different to what I am doing at the moment.

Of course, she asked the question I was dreading, why do you want to leave Wellcome. She is an academic with a Phd from UCL and knew about Wellcome. I tried to say how I wanted to get back into an agency setting and do project work and have more responsibility for running my own team, that kind of stuff.

She then said, ‘Come on, am an American, you can be candid with me, it’s coz your bored isn’t it?’ I had to agree. She mentioned a few things like how stressful it is and how busy I would be an all the responsibility of the job. She summed up with she thought it would be exactly what I would be looking for.

It seemed like she was responding really well, saying things like ‘if you chose to work here’ and ‘If you accept the role here’ – good open language like that.

As a senior role at the firm, I would get to work in ‘Group’ as they call it, which is the floor with all the senior managers and the directors, for 6 weeks to 2 months orientation, so I get to know the business, before I move to my own floor and run my own projects with my own team.

She let me know a few things about the company, that it is still a family run company, sounds like the joint CEO’s, Simon and Margaret. Margret’s sister runs the Oz operation. All very cool. I mentioned NYC | Dubai | Bristol. She said they were very embryonic at this stage. She was interested to hear that I grew up in Abu Dhabi.

It would be great experience, very hard work and it would be stressful I think. I would have to be completely different in my approach to work, but you know what, a place like that would want you to be.

I’m kicking myself now, that I didn’t ask what the next stage would be.

I hope I hear from them, or do I?

People blatantly stealing the BBC homepage code is cracking on:

BBC Internet blog post

How HRT failed in their intention to become Croatian BBC

Croatian HRT rips-off BBC.co.uk

Imitation, flattery and the BBC

Little Ilford School

For some reason, the school really annoys me with it’s blatant plagiarism, I hope the pupils and parents have taken note. It is staggering, they have not even changed the metadata!

Join in with the download party: