Working in Scotland

welcome to the space of the wonderful blog!

i'm sitting at work, it's 9.20 and i'm already bored. i've been hired to answer phones and be the welcoming face that people see when they come in, covering until a new receptionist is hired. Unfortunately life here is a tad boring. ah - the post has arrived. that'll keep me a little bit busy for the next 5 minutes.

Here's a time that i never thought i'd see: yes - if they ask me to wrk next week, i might have to say no. when there's a chance of free money, i should really take it and enjoy it but this free money is doing my head in! ah the joys.

had a few interviews but nothing much. i'm gonna go round next week and bug some of these people, maybe call up a few companies and sell myself...maybe. I can't believe how difficult it is to get a job here now - my brother was out of work for a month and not exactly sitting back. he spent every day applying, following up, reading job sections in newspapers. he applied for everything!! he eventually got a saturday job and ended up taking a job in the company he's worked with for the last however many years. it came just in time 'cos he had no money left...literally. £7 left in his overdraft limit and that was it. The job was a lucky break too 'cos they didn't know he was looking for work, just called to see what he was up to and if he could help them out. well, he decided to go back since they pay lots and he'll be on proper salary. I couldn't believe how long he was looking for. and now i've been here for a month and no luck. I heard a girl in the bus telling her friend that she'd applied for up to 200 jobs and got one interview and managed to get the job - didn't matter what it was, she was gonna take that job cos she wasn't gonna get anything else very easily. I'm really shocked at the state of the job market here.

Anyways, i'm here...not just a couple weeks - i'll be here for the next 6 months pretty much. i'm looking forward to phoning the places i had job interviews at last week and finding out what feedback they have for me in terms of interview technique.

ah - the post...got to put it away still. i do jobs in little bits so that it lasts a long time. i did the post ages ago and put half of it away to the appropraite people so now i've got to get the rest into the correct pigeon holes. not so easy when you don't know people's names nor their role in the company.

Right - off to have a great day. it's now 10.30 and i'm almost done with all the stuff that's landed on my desk...not much more on the horizon.

Saturday 28th April

me and the boyfriend were going out saturday night. he'd told me to keep it free, so i did - said he'd pick me up from dad's place. so there's me got to dad's place but noone in. the sensor light was still on so figured dad'd just gone out. ten minutes later the flat buzzer goes and i let the person in thinking it must be for some other flat. my brothers girlfriend walks in a minute later so i was wrong about that. we chat for a bit and then i ask how come she's at dad's since it's way over the other side of town from hers and my bro. she tells me she came to see dad about borrowing the van. very convincing!!
dad walks in 10mins later to my surprise and so i think that's ideal for her to ask him about the van. funnily enough, she doesn't say anything about that - just chats. my B'friend arrives a few minutes later. here's me still thinking just me and him are going out. then a party fire engine - a big pink thing - pulls up outside and he makes some comment about our transport arriving.

yeah right!!, i'm thinking. probably some crazy people going out in that thing. dad and co had already gone out somewhere so me and T went downstairs, seen dad and folk standing on the kerb and then we all climbed into the pink fire engine. (i'm still thinking 'are you sure this is for us?')
drove around edinburgh and seen all the great sites. the photo shows edinburgh castle on the hill behind the fire engine. There was posh bubbly with the fire engine too – dad and A stole the second bottle since it came with the package anyways.
Pulled up to a nice Chinese buffet restaurant. I think it’s really good food. Yummy!!!! Soup, then starters, then main course, then another course just ‘cos you can, then icecream, jelly, fritters. The best icecream in town from a little known local icecream shop that’s now expanded very successfully cos their icecream is so different.
We were waiting for my bro to arrive so had some starter while we were waiting. T was just getting into a magic trick when he showed up. T impressed the company with his magic skills and we went for some real food. It was the funnest meal ever!! After every plate, we would relax and T got out his cards or showed off with some disappearing money. Very clever, eh!!!

Pudding time – most of us had icecream and stuff. I had to go back for 2nds to try the different flavours and was the last one finished – hate to think of the time T was waiting for me to finish…ooops!

So, as it was, T had to do another magic trick. It was nothing unusual since he’d been doing tricks all the way through the meal. The girl behind the bar was looking intently at the magic trick and appeared very interested, which I thought was cool. So the coin disappeared and he told me to go and see if the coin was behind his neck like he’d said it would be. I had a quick feel and found something…but it wasn’t the coin. I didn’t know what to do! Everyone else noticed that my face had changed and it went a wee bit quiet – wondering what the matter was.
I kept the ring in my hand and found the coin that was there and put that back on the table. And promptly sat down. Funnily enough, attention wasn’t on the coin or the trick any more – they were more interested in what was in my hand ‘cos they had no idea what it was. T took my hand and then the ring. There was a bit of a gasp when they saw it was a ring I was holding. T got down and asked me then to marry him…eek!!

‘course, we all know the answer would be yes, but it was soooo weird to be asked and have to reply. I was a wee bit quiet so the girl behind the bar prompted me and I said yes.

She started up some music that I immediately recognized as a song that T is always singing a couple of lines out of. Can you believe he sang the whole song right there infront of the whole restaurant. There was a rugby team out celebrating their loss to a local team too. Excellent night!!! The rings absolutely beautiful and it fits too, which is always a bonus !!!