I Have a Job!

2005-05-11 at 2:41 a.m.

I went off to vote like a good citizen on Thursday. I've never seen so many policemen outside the ballot booths! (I live in Bethnal Green & Bow). I voted for Respect, George Galloway's party, mostly I have to admit on the fact that I dislike Oona King quite extremely now. She seemed to go loony during the campaign and accused Galloway of all sorts of strange things. So I decided to vote for him, partly as a personal protest against her and partly because of Iraq. Then I sat up half the night waiting for Bethnal Green to declare their result. They were supposed to announce at two but eventually announced at half four in the morning! Still I was able to see the speeches from Oona and Galloway - he was surprisingly magnaminious I thought, complimenting her and saying the votes for him weren't personally against her even though they self-evidently were. She wasn't so pleasant, but not actively unpleasant either. So we have a new MP. I was also able to see Tynemouth's result (Lab hold. Its the constituency I grew up in) and see the other guff. But I was so tired I didn't take much of it in. Still, we have another Labour government, which I'm not sure about. If Blair goes, then great, but like most people, I'm not so fond of him these days.

Anyway, that meant I overslept the next day which was fine as I had the morning off from the place in Brick Lane as dad was coming home. When I finally got up I went to talk to him, as mum and dad were going away at midday. He brought me stuff from America - an iPod (with $25 of credit on iTunes), two Tom Waits CDs (Blue Valentine, Rain Dogs) and an Arrogant Worms CD (Gift Wrapped). Then I had to go up to Brick Lane after seeing them off, and spent some of the time talking to Sam, and some of the time actually looking for a job. Then the computers all broke down, and they (after some persuasion) let us go home early.

Oh and the good news of the week was that I got through to the hotel I applied for work in and got a job interview on Monday.

The weekend I spent mostly doing nothing, drinking lager, smoking too much and mooching on the internet.

Monday...I overslept a bit but wasn't late for my interview. I put on my "interview shoes" and my suit and off I went. The interview was in the hotel in Bloomsbury with the manager. We just had a little chat really, he asked about my previous experience (which for once I actually have, in a hotel in Edinburgh), how I dealt with difficult customers and so on, and then said that I got the job! They apparently like to train everyone to do everything in case of staff shortages, and when I mentioned I've always fancied working on the bar, said that could be arranged. I think I'll be starting on waitressing though as I've done it before. Its full-time, 30 hours a week, on £5 an hour, which isn't great but still means that I'll be earning £80 a week more than I am at the moment, so its all good. And as I'm supposed to spend 30 hours a week at the jobsearch place, I'd rather spend it working and earning money. The only trouble is about tax really, because I really, really don't want to be put on the emergency tax band which takes 30% of your income away, especially as it would take until March before I could claim it back. Still apparently I have to go to a two-day induction thing (the aims of the hotel chain etc) on Monday and Tuesday next week so I'm going to ask then if there is any way I can be put on a lower tax band. But the good news overall is:

I got a job!!!

After two years of unemployment too. Hopefully I'll get to know some people too. Afterwards I had a wander off down Oxford Street because I'll need a white shirt for the job. Black shoes and trousers I already have. Then I discovered that plain white long-sleeved shirts are obviously completely out of fashion, I looked everywhere and the best I could find was a white shirt with three-quarter length sleeves. So the same old problem - scars. Still it'll do, I think, so long as I don't over-extend my arms I should be ok. I also went a bit mad and seeing as I'll be earning money soon, spent next week's dole money on a pair of shoes. Not work shoes either, but those Converse boots.

Sadly the interview shoes knackered my feet, and I have a terrible blister which is preventing me wearing my new shoes. Not that that stopped me wearing them today. I had biology today and wore a T-shirt as part of the grand plan to see if my scars are still noticeable. However I was too shy to be waving my arms around and I don't think anyone could have noticed. Never mind. I got 95% for my essay on invasive species, which was nice. Aside from that, nothing much happened. I came home and watched Holby City and CSI, which I'd taped. Tomorrow is physics and I hope the course director doesn't take it into her head to make comments about my maths again, especially as I haven't worked over the past paper like I was supposed to, as last week I was more or less broke and couldn't afford to buy one. I will buy a few tomorrow though, as I have a little more money and it would be useful for revision.

So, a good week, and even though I've neglected taking my pills, things have been fine. I'll have to start taking them again though as I don't want things to go less-fine, and besides which I want to be able to say whether or not not being on the mood stabilisers is ok when I next see the doctor.

So till tomorrow...

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