|
|
Sunday, October 11th, 2009
| |
9:30 am - Sunday morning
|
Although I only seem to update LJ annually these days, I just wanted to make a note of how I still felt two days after I got married.
I find myself grinning like a fool, even though I'm still absolutely knackered. And every time I see a photo from the day that warm feeling just starts all over again.
I am staggered at the generosity of friends and family who have given us their time and company as well as cards and gifts and contributions to our imminent trip to New Zealand. The people that make up our worlds are just terrifying brilliant and I love them all very much.
I am comforted by how relaxed everyone (I saw) seemed to be during our wedding day. Aside from a degree of obligatory cat-herding during the photo session to make the most of the dry spell, people just seemed chilled and happy. We'd always wanted that to be the case: a day of fun and laughter and entertainment and friendship, but some things you just can't plan. Some things, well you just have to leave people to be people. And I continue to be amazed what happens when you do that.
I am pleased that the casino went down as well as the bacon butties and that we got in at least a couple of games of croquet before night set in. Even if I did suck at it. And found that playing one handed while I had a glass of mead in the other probably didn't improve my game. But it certainly made it more fun!
I'm chuffed that DJ Ant was able to roll out tune after tune of cool tunes and that I got to both take to the floor and watch friends and family at work from the sideline.
I'm also pleased that despite the length of the train on Fionna's awesome dress of awesome - which made her look like a fairy princess - we were still able to complete the first dance without killing each other. A dance floor fatality would seriously have put a cramper on the day.
I can't wait to see my godfather's video footage and the photographer's official pics when we get back from honeymoon. There was so much we couldn't see of the day even between the two of us.
But most of all - though I do not regret waiting six years to propose - I'm delighted that Fionna said 'yes'. And that still makes me smile.
|
|
(10 comments | comment on this)
|
| Sunday, March 15th, 2009
| |
8:57 am - So there you go then...
|
I Am A: Neutral Good Human Ranger/Sorcerer (2nd/2nd Level)
Ability Scores:
Strength-12
Dexterity-14
Constitution-13
Intelligence-15
Wisdom-15
Charisma-14
Alignment:
Neutral Good A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them. Neutral good is the best alignment you can be because it means doing what is good without bias for or against order. However, neutral good can be a dangerous alignment because it advances mediocrity by limiting the actions of the truly capable.
Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.
Primary Class:
Rangers are skilled stalkers and hunters who make their home in the woods. Their martial skill is nearly the equal of the fighter, but they lack the latter's dedication to the craft of fighting. Instead, the ranger focuses his skills and training on a specific enemy a type of creature he bears a vengeful grudge against and hunts above all others. Rangers often accept the role of protector, aiding those who live in or travel through the woods. His skills allow him to move quietly and stick to the shadows, especially in natural settings, and he also has special knowledge of certain types of creatures. Finally, an experienced ranger has such a tie to nature that he can actually draw on natural power to cast divine spells, much as a druid does, and like a druid he is often accompanied by animal companions. A ranger's Wisdom score should be high, as this determines the maximum spell level that he can cast.
Secondary Class:
Sorcerers are arcane spellcasters who manipulate magic energy with imagination and talent rather than studious discipline. They have no books, no mentors, no theories just raw power that they direct at will. Sorcerers know fewer spells than wizards do and acquire them more slowly, but they can cast individual spells more often and have no need to prepare their incantations ahead of time. Also unlike wizards, sorcerers cannot specialize in a school of magic. Since sorcerers gain their powers without undergoing the years of rigorous study that wizards go through, they have more time to learn fighting skills and are proficient with simple weapons. Charisma is very important for sorcerers; the higher their value in this ability, the higher the spell level they can cast.
Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)
|
|
(10 comments | comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, November 1st, 2006
| |
1:36 pm - There and back again...
|
What Dan did on his holiday to New Zealand: the 30 second snapshot:
- Tried and failed (twice!) to swim with dolphins. They obviously saw me coming.
- Had a boat tour of the Bay of islands and saw penguins instead. From afar.
- Sailed on Errol Flynn's boat the Barbary on Lake Taupo (which is the size of Singapore, pub quiz fans)
- Drove to 'Mordor' (AKA Tongario National Park) but gave up when we were in a snow cloud half way up the mountain road. Took us 1.5 hours to get there from Taupo so I don't know what those hobbits were moaning about really.
- Stood 2 foot away from a kiwi (bird). Surprisingly they are the size of a chicken and quite grumpy, dashing my belief that they were small and cute
- Enjoyed a boat ride through a glow worm cave. Discovered that glow worms are in fact glow maggots and that the glowing part is their poo. They have had a seriously good PR job considering!
- Had a thermal mud bath, languished in a Polynesian Spa and experienced a traditional massage usually reserved for Maori warriors. I am such a ponce.
- Attended a traditional Maori hangi meal where they cooked the food in the ground and witnessed a 'proper' haka
- Had dinner in a revolving restaurant on top of Auckland's Sky Tower, the tallest man made structure in the Southern hemisphere
- Took far too many pictures of waterfalls, mountains, coast lines and thermal mud formations
- Visited Hell's Gate (in Roturua)
- Drove on twisting roads through rainforests so high that they were actually in the clouds
- Chatted to a professional wood turner and checked out his collection of 45k year old kauri tree carvings
- Saw more penguins and rays and sharks (but still no god damned dolphins!) at Kelly Tarlton's Underwater and Antarctic Experience
- Ate far too much lamb
- Had a pizza with venison topping that was the size of a dustbin lid
- Discovered that motor home toilets roof heights are not designed with me in mind and that when the 'grey water' tank is full, waste water comes up through the shower plug hole. nice.
It was very, very cool and my bank account has had a hernia
current mood: Back at work
|
|
(9 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, September 8th, 2006
| |
1:33 pm - wisdom
|
Four years passed since I last went to the dentist. Recently I couldn't remember why that was and, after chipping a tooth, went and signed up to a new dentist. In the last two weeks I have had two fillings and both of my lower wisdom teeth removed. Now I remember why I don't like going to the dentist.
Right now I've left work sick as the tooth they tried to extract this morning shattered and had to be removed a piece at a time. I have a suture in my gum and though my left eyelid has finally started working again and I've stopped having to manually blink it after they put extra injections in my gum and half my face froze, that means the anaesthetic is wearing off. Now the pain is creeping in having previously just been a dull annoyance it's starting to graduate to discomfort as the plier-bruised and torn gum tissue is starting to wake up again.
The last wisdom tooth I had out two weeks ago came out in one piece and took fifteen minutes. It wasn't a nice experienence but it was quick, in hindsight, and I pottered back to work and got on with the job in hand. This one came out in six pieces and took 45 minutes of drilling, pliers and ominous cracking sounds.
I also came to the conclusion this morning that the human mouth is not designed to be open that long. Not even mine.
Most of all, I really crave some proper lunch right now - something unhealthy with a lot of dead cooked animal in it, sat betwixt a bun perhaps. Sadly, I'm on ice cream and fruit smoothies today, graduating to hot soup and, perchance, coffee tomorrow.
Now I remember why I don't like going to the dentist. And before anyone says - well if you went to the dentist more often maybe it wouldn't have been so bad, don't. You may be right, but I'm narky, have access to a large number of sharpened crayons and if I squint (not a problem right now) you'll look a bit like my dentist.
I need a hug.
|
|
(14 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, June 3rd, 2005
| |
10:54 pm - Sin City
|
|
| |
5:57 pm - Chufty Badge
|
Ooooo, I have a shiney new job *polishes chufty badge up*
I am about to become a PR Account Manager for an International PR agency called Grayling (no relation) PR
I went for the interview Tuesday lunchtime, had verbal confirmation of the job by Wednesday and the offer letter arrived today. *looks quizzically over shoulder and wondered how that all happened so quickly*
Still, it was my 9th interview
I don't believe it has actually sunk in yet, but I just handed my notice in at RBS so I better get with it pretty sharpish. I hope I'm doing the right thing, but in my gut, it feels good and I guess if it all goes wrong it's just kharma and I can spend my unemployment writing my novel.
*chuckle* I will have minions at last! The first step upon the road to world domination begins.
*polishes chufty badge up some more and looks generally surprised at recent developments*
|
|
(11 comments | comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, December 29th, 2004
| |
5:18 pm - Gold lame' / Gray Christmas
|
Wow, that shows how often I properly update this thing- you can post LJ by phone now if you've got a paid account! What the hell? I feel old.
Anyway, so I guess it's that time of year where people get all reflective, and I'm not talking about donning gold lame' or polishing themselves up real nice.
Christmas was nice but quiet- spent the morning with Fee and then drove home to Portsmouth to see mum and dad and catch up with my gran. The folks are doing well, though mum's started talking about retirement and how she's started working in a hospice a few evenings a week- not cheery but rewarding by the sounds of it. Dad was full of carpet-cleaning-franchise-empire building stories and gran has reached the age where she pretty much spends 80% of all conversations reminiscing about the past. Still, learnt some things that my dad never told me about himself, like he had tuberculosis at the age of 5 and spent 18 months in a hospital. He missed school for pretty much that entire time, so it's damn impressive considering how well he did for himself becoming the director of a 400 staff engineering plant.
I'm still at the Royal Bank of Scotland, still sold my soul to corporate servitude, still confused as to how the hell I ended up in this job, but one day my loans will be repaid and I'll become the struggling penniless writer I dream to be. Heady heights indeed. Haven't written a goddamn single word on my novel for the last six months and its beginning to chew me up inside at the moment. Have too many distractions in my life- like the games I run or work- to just get my teeth into the damn thing. Going home was good though as the drive back always lets my mind wander and find its way back to the plot, as it were. I need to make some changes soon regards the way I spend my free time and something's gona have to give to let me get the first draft of the story done.
2005 will be the year the (first draft aleast of the) novel is drafted, the year the Bristol UnderWorld live game will probably came to a close, the year I'll be 27 (suggestions for alternative birthday celebrations greatfully recieved- I've done the same thing two years running now) and the year I take a view on whether I should start looking for a new job come September (the two year anniversary)- possibly even working for my old boss/ young friend's own PR company (current staff: 2). It'll also be the year that Manicman heads off to the US (Chicago by the sounds of it) and that I do a better job of keeping up with Netalterego. I've locked myself off in my own little world for the last twelve months, keeping my head down, getting work done, distracting myself with LRP or little creative projects that fail to come to fruition or get lost down the back of the sofa- time to wake up.
It's gona be an interesting year.
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, December 16th, 2004
| |
10:17 pm - Hmmm, December 16th you say? Wasn't it 'only just Autumn' last time I looked?
|
|
Hmmm, so Christmas has completely snuck up on me thanks to the distractions of work, which leaves me with one important question: anyone know of any good New Years parties going on? Preferably in or near Bristol but open to suggestions.
|
|
(4 comments | comment on this)
|
| Monday, August 16th, 2004
| |
6:14 pm - Small things
|
Today (that is the 'today' that I have experienced so far) was largely unremarkable. It was, however, sprinkled with very little differences and small pleasures.
I woke up earliar than normal and felt rested, ignoring the usual monday morning fugue which every human being has to endure for those few painful moments after you've been wrenched from a nice dream and a warm duvet. I walked to work for the first time since I began my job at RBS and it was both pleasant and kind of invigorating.
When I arrived I discovered I had got a really good bit of coverage from a press release I wrote and sold into the paper last week. Even after four or so years of PR, getting coverage from articles and releases I have written still makes me smile. I drank only three coffees throughout the entire day, rather than my usual 'one every half and hour' and supplemented it with water instead.
I had lunch with Mark, which I often do, but nevertheless is always both a pleasure and a curious combination of real life (tm) musings and roleplay flannel. When I returned I changed desks because the current one I had made me feel uncomfortable as I had my back to the entire office and people also kept looking at work I was doing on my screen, which just winds the bejeesus out of me- it's like people reading a paper over your shoulder- GO AND BUY YOUR OWN GODDAMN PAPER YOU INSIDIOUS PARASITE... ahem... After eleven months it was nice to finally feng shui the place I work for 8 or more hours each day. I also wrote two damn good press releases which I was proud of and which I was also complimented upon.
I walked home and, though I became living proof that all men should wear very strong deodorant in humid weather, I was able to amble, avoiding the usual rush hour traffic stress associated with even short commutes. I laughed quitely to myself when I realised it took twenty minutes to drive to work and only 25 to walk it. A short shower and the world is once again a less fragrant and more chilled place. I am now off to meet Fee at the cinema which is nice, because it sill feels like we're 'dating' rather than 'just' 'going out'- always good when you've been seeing someone for almost two years.
Today has been a good day in many very little ways
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, June 3rd, 2004
| |
5:50 pm - top hat and tails
|
Ok, so sagely advise required- where can I find myself a nice (nearly) new tail coat (that fits) and also a top hat (that fits and) that doesn't cost, like, a million pounds? Preferably in Bristol but prepared to travel to find it. Anywhere good online that I could check out?
Answers on a postcard to... me
|
|
(6 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, May 28th, 2004
| |
6:21 pm - Bang bang, you're dead
|
Sometimes I forget how much I enjoy running games
It can happen very easily to be honest- the paperwork, the email chains, the time and money invested, the prop making, the kit buying. There's also the amount of effort that Griff puts into every session to make the Full Moon look fantastic, the time he puts in to clean up afterward and the fact that whilst I'm strolling around running the night he's stuck behind the bar working for free. And then even on the evening itself you're not sure if it's all working, if your best laid plans are panning out, if all those people are playing poker because they're actually bored out of their trilbey-wearing heads.
But then every so often you run a cracking evening and lots of people tell you how much they enjoyed it and people smile and they shake your hand. Then, despite the fact that it is only a game, and a glorified game of cops and robbers at that, its kind of all worth the effort.
Thanks for making it worth it guys
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, April 7th, 2004
| |
8:56 pm - Corporate Hoegarden
|
So another year older and yet another inexorable step to looking a bit more like my dad. ho hum.
2004 has been off to a pretty good start to be honest.
Job is going ok and I've got the basics under my belt now so I actually can passibly look like I know what I'm doing. Still not entirely sure how I ended up as a corporate whore, leaving university with all these dreams about becoming an impoverished writer tapping away at a rented typewriter in the dark recesses of a loft somewhere, possibly developing consumption just 'for the inspiration'. Still, making a bank look interesting challenges anyone's creative skills, so I guess I'll enjoy the boudoir of corporate profanity for a while- at least until I can afford the pre-requisite laudanum habit which comes hand in hand with all struggling, tortured writers ;)
Birthday bash was a most excellent weekend and it was great to catch up with everyone. It's really interesting how some people have changed and some really don't seem to have changed at all.
The Underworld live roleplay game that myself and Griff (re)started also seems to be going well and people seem to be enjoying it. Which is quite frankly the only real reason I run things like that. For those that haven't had the dubious pleasure of running a live roleplay game before, it's kinda like running a party where you're the host but if someone spills beer on your carpet you can have them killed :) Strangely it seems like less 'work' than any other games I've run before, especially live vampire, so that's nice. There also doesn't seem to be the associated social baggage that you get with games like that. It also helps that all the guys get to look cool, wear trilbeys and suits and tote smoking tommy guns and all the ladies look reeeeeeeeeal nice, whilst subtley slipping a one-way ticket mickey into your JD on the rocks.
Ok so the goddamn novel (tm) is still in my head and I've gone and got even more conflicting ideas that really leave me not knowing where to go with the thing now. I have too many options. Before I had writers block and no options. Nrrgh. Still I have a good feeling about this year, having climbed over a 2003 wrought with some serious bad karma, that a first draft will emerge in time.
On a random note just watched Master and Commander which actually rocked, rather than being the cheese fest I anticipated- kinda like Bernard Cornwell's Sharp on sea. Nice. And Paul Bettany is the mutt's nuts as always. Equally randomly I just realised that it's a film with absolutely no women or love interst at all. Unusual for a Hollywood helmer, but further enforcing the boy's own quality of it all.
Hopefully off to see Shaun of the Dead on Friday- should be a laugh.
So how is everyone and how many people just read live journal's now rather than writing their own- seems to be a real spate of that recently (he said having spent the last three months reading live journal without updating his own...)?
Ooo, I have a chilled Hoegarden in the fridge *wanders off to free it from its frosty prison*
|
|
(8 comments | comment on this)
|
| Monday, January 26th, 2004
| |
7:11 pm - monday
|
> Christmas this year was both the best and the worst Christmas that I can remember. I spent the weekend before Christmas with many of my good friends but even then kept thinking of those friends that weren't there. I spent Christmas Eve at Fionnaghal's Dad's funeral which was indescribable. I've never cried and hurt so much for somebody else nor felt so frustrated, uncomfortable or lost. I went to see my parents on Christmas day and felt guilty because I was able to spend time with both of them and she wasn't. My mum was happy to see me but worried because you can't hide a damn thing from your own mum and she kept trying to get me to talk about it when all I wanted to do was quite the opposite. I also broke a lifetime's resolution and not only watched an entire episode of Eastenders on Christmas day, but I actually suffered two. fucking Christmas specials. I blame the amount of food that I ate and my inability to get up from the chair.
> Had my 'should have been a three month turned into a four and a half month' review the other day. Aside from telling me that I was good at PR and needed to work on my marketing skills (that being the whole point of taking this job, incidentally) my boss told me that I was a perfectionist and put more pressure on myself than she did. As so many people have told me this in recent years I have now come to the conclusion that possibly there may be a kernel of truth in this statement. I made my first big mistake in my job two days before my review and beat myself up about it. Right now I'm not sure why.
> My uncle had a heart-attack last week. He's younger than my dad and a farmer, so he's gona be off work for months and will probably have to sell the farm. My dad does a physical job now, since he became a truck-mounted cleaning franchisee. His partner left so he's running the business on his own now. I hope he takes it easy.
> A good friend/ ex colleague of mine keeps gently asking me about coming to help her out by working at in her new PR company that she recently set up. It would mean a pay cut, a complete loss of job security, payment as a freelancer rather than a salaried employee, loss of all priveleges and many other things. However, it would mean I had a hand in building a company that is already blossoming under her skilled management and actually doing something that felt creative again rather than writing press releases which can be summed up with the stunning theme of 'bank lends company money'.
> My wingman, Manicman, has been offered a fucking fantastic opportunity to work overseas in either the USA or Montreal and to have what he's always wanted in a career and everything that he deserves after the years of work, study, professional and personal obstacles that he has endured. I'm really indescribably happy for him but I can't imagine him not being a couple of hours down the road anymore. Which is a pretty fucking selfish thing to say but hey.
> I did one of those online tests and discovered that I had only met or spoken to 80% of my LJ friends. That's kind of weird when you think about it.
> I need a plan. I had a plan in university. I need something to aim for, something to focus on. anyone got a plan I could borrow?
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, November 11th, 2003
| |
8:44 pm - comfy slippers and a good pipe
|
What an interesting few months.
I've now been in my not-so new PR & Marketing job since September 1st and I think I'm actually slowly starting to get the hang of it now. I'm starting to get some good results and they're starting to get recognised. I'm even getting used to all the driving seeing as my patch covers a triangle-ish area from Southampton, upto Cheltenham, across to Swansea and then down to Plymouth. Ok so that was four sides, but you get the gist. Still my geography is improving and it does give me long journeys to drive too fast and sing too loudly.
The 'big company thing' is a little frustrating at times. For the last 4 or so years I have worked for companies that have employed between four and twenty employees and what they lacked in organisation sometimes, they made up for in 'not having a fricking form for everything'. It feels like I need need to complete some kind of paperwork to wipe my ass sometimes... other than the usual of course... sorry, that flippant analogy got lost in an unpleasant image for a moment.
I'm also tired. All the time. I get home from work, veg or chill out and then come 10pm I'm looking at my watch and thinking how I really ought to think about crashing soon. Jesus, buy me the comfy slippers and a good pipe now! I'm 25 for christs sake. Still, as I keep telling myself, I just need to put in the hours and the effort and the feckin paperwork for another ten months and then I can seriously consider my good friend Aime's offer of employing me in her newly set-up PR agency which is going great guns already. Aime used to be my boss when I first got into PR and she's great. As a side note she also looks alot like Sarah Michelle-Gellar/ Buffy, but that's by the by.
Still, it's making me think and it's certainly working my little grey (Or should that be Gray) cells. Now that I've got over the 'what the hell stupid question am I gona be aske now' syndrome everytime the phone rings I'm really starting to get into it. And the people that I work with, most of whom are bankers (and no that's not rhyming sland- well mostly) are really cool and think that I wield somekind of mystical art that is PR.
So I guess we'll see what happens. I hope that I get over this initial tiredness and get back into being my old (that is recent) self again. I also am thoroughly enjoying the paycheck and am even managing not to piss it all up the wall. Some for example gets invested into my cd collection, or my wardrobe or...
|
|
(9 comments | comment on this)
|
| Monday, August 25th, 2003
| |
11:18 pm - Punting, Prague and wetsuits
|
So the flawless plan of kicking back for the two weeks before starting my new job is progressing well. Last weekend caught up with Manicman and had a really chill time in Cambridge. Met a very cool friend of his, drank far too much, heckled people punting down the river Cam and harassed a hen party on a boat. Strawberry tossing was also involved, but that's a different story.
Prague kicked ass- just two days but it was a busy two days! Checked out the castle and Charles Bridge and did all the really touristy things, but that was cool. Also found an excellent restaurant with a view of the castle so if anyone's heading out there soon, let me know- it was very very cool and one of the best candlelit dinners I've ever had ;)
This weekend was a whistle stop tour of Cardiff- caught up with an old friend (and ex) of mine, which was not only nice and chilled, but also lasted for three hours. It was nice to actually sit and just chew the fat and have no baggage attached. It's taken two or three years, but hey, better late than never. Also met Jon's friend Lou, who was very cool and had the ability to put the man in his place with just a look or a word for which she has my eternal gratitude. Ended up in Metros as always but somehow was able to ignore the 15 year olds and the generally mankiness to dance like an angry chicken all night. Feckin brilliant.
Last nite was also Moussaka Thief's birthday so her blokey Indy James arranged a surprise meal for her with a load of the bristol guys and it was really nice and chilled, tho she seemed really tired cos she'd be working shit loads of long shifts. Big hug and hope you're enjoying the day(s?) off.
Saw Tomb Raider today, and it didn't suck, which was a pleasnt surprise. Not that a film with Anjelina Jolie featured heavily can ever be a complete loss, of course, but this one actually had a plot. And Lara Croft in a wet suit. Poink.
Off to Oxford tomorrow to see my amigo Chris and then hopefully to Didcot to catch up with Sorcha. Then I think I might actually just chill out in Bristol for a few days and recover from my holiday :)
Man, not working feels good!
|
|
(8 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, August 15th, 2003
| |
4:32 pm - sad
|
One hour left in the job that I have trained, sweat and worked in for the last 2.5 years.
Feels weird.
There's only a handful of the guys here today and aside from dinner down the pub everyone seems to be ignoring the fact. No goodbye prezzy it would seem. Even the damn junior staff members got leaving prezzies when they had been here only six months. Still guess I can understand- just between me getting the verbal offer of my new job and the contract my company took me aside and said that they wanted to make me a manager- fast track me through the ranks and give me a team to build up and run. Then I took not only that possibility away, but the £25k a month's worth of business that i run and account handle for them. Still it's not just me- five members of staff have left in less months and that's from junior all the way up through to director level. Think that says something.
Still a good luck for the future wouldn't have gone a miss.
Oh well, onto bigger and scarier things....
|
|
(6 comments | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, July 31st, 2003
| |
4:38 pm - Feel free to kiss my ass on my way out
|
So I handed in my notice at Multimedia and that went down like Monica Lewinsky on the lard and doughnut diet. Still, only two weeks and day left to serve on my notice and then I have a fortnight off before I start at the Royal Bank of Scotland. Also just realised that that will be the longest holiday I've had in over three years which is kind of a scary thought. Ironically I'm actually starting to de-stress now that the new job is assured and I'm outa here, so of course my body is now relaxing and making me feel tired all the time. Yeah, thanks for that ;)
As such, with impeding hols, I'm going on a bit of a mini-tour of the UK, so anyone that's up for a visit give us a yell and we'll see what we can get sorted.
Starting to brick myself about the new job, but quite frankly need to get the hell out of here and RBS was an opportunity I couldn't turn down. We'll see if 'it's me' or if PR is really the path I'm sposed to be walking. A little voice in my head says no, but for an £8k payrise, I'm willing to entertain the idea for a little while at least.
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Monday, July 7th, 2003
| |
9:38 pm - Shit Eating Grin
|
This is the face of a man with a shit-eating grin.
Consider this a warning to all readers to close their Natwest or Royal Bank of Scotland accounts, should they be based in the South West of England or South Wales, because, as of today, you're in my patch ;)
Well ok, so I'm not going to (hopefully) have any detrimental affect on anyone's bank accounts, but I am now the Marketing and PR co-ordinator for the SW England and Southern Wales and, even better, no longer have to commute to Chepstow every friggin day.
And did I mention the payrise. Not 10k as hoped. Just 8k. With an annual profit bonus. And an annual personal bonus. And a 17.5% pension. And 25 days holiday.
*performs slighly drunken, somewhat 'mincey', but stupidly grinny little victory dance*
Who's your daddy? Well I believe that would be me :)
|
|
(15 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, July 4th, 2003
| |
4:43 pm - brain through a strainer
|
Well that was an interesting experience- a 2h.5hr interview for that Royal Bank of Scotland job, consisting of an hour and a half of competency based questions (read interrogation by the Inquisition) followed by a writing test. Oh and did I mention the ten minute presentation I had to research, create and deliver at the interview despite only having just over 24 hours notice.
Don't know if I've got it and won't find out until Monday earliest if I got into the 3rd (!) round of interviews but at least that one is less formal and involves getting to know the big boss I'd be working closely with to check to see if we get on.
One good sign is that I got to meet both the person who is currently holding the role of going for as well as one of the business development managers I'd be working with. They both said that they thought they'd like to work with me and I got accused of being a personable, honest, open, user-friendly guy. Slander ;)~ We like that Director chap. We're going to keep him.
Will keep you posted. Right now, I'm going to chill and relax after two days not-stopping at all.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Thursday, June 26th, 2003
| |
6:07 pm - update
|
So my life in a nutshell:
I am still hungover from a work-related black tie awards dinner on Tuesday night.
I am going to yet another work leaving-do tonight.
I just realised that I only really want to see one person and they are the one that is leaving. I used to have six really good friends here. Now I have 2 at a push.
My manager with whom I work on far too many PR accounts (and am currently very stressed because of this) is about to leave.
Management haven't actually told me this fact, I have discovered from various other sources that I have.
They also don't plan to replace him. I wonder where they think this work capacity will be generated from.
I have a second interview with the Royal Bank of Scotland, hopefully next week.
I seem to have lost my ravenous appetite recently. This is troubling but could be stress related.
I had an interesting conversation with an old friend on Saturday. Something has changed. I think it is for the better.
My novel has stalled at 10k words.
But I think the next 10k words are imminent.
that's all folks
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
dang's journal