Hebden Royd 2, Morley 6

Was going well until half time, when we were drawing 1-1. 2nd half just went downhill. It didn't feel like we were playing that badly but the other team kept getting the goals. Probably wasn't helped by yours truly being up-front - a striker who can't score goals is a bit useless! I did enjoy it & didn't feel quite as knackered as the last match so that's an improvement.

Had better get back to what I'm meant to be doing & start applying for jobs.

El Salvador Memories

Several things have happened recently that reminded me of my trip to El Salvador earlier this year...

A couple of weeks ago I received some very exciting post; the children at the school I helped to build sent me lots of pictures and thank you letters. They were very sweet (I have to admit to struggling to understand most of them - but I did get the general gist). Keep meaning to reply to them, which will involve attempting to bring back some of that Spanish that's disappeared into the back of my brain. I did manage a reasonable Spanish msn conversation with serve (Salvadoran friend) today.

Tengo un carro nuevo :) (Although strictly speaking, I suppose es un carro antiguo)

I've had an e-mail from the man who worked for Plan - the organisation responsible for the new classroom project - with photos of the finished school. I was sad to have to leave El Salvador when the building wasn't quite finished, so it was good to see it complete:

There was a program on BBC 2 yesterday about El Salvador. Included lots of places I recognised, & the accents of the people also brought back some fond memories. Was glad that I hadn't seen it before I went - started with something along the lines of 'El Salvador is the most dangerous country in Central America, 1 in 3 residents have been the victim of violent (usually gun) crime'. It's true that the country has a lot of problems, but I did feel the program portrayed an unfair bias of the bad stuff vs the good. It did do well at showing the USA probably has a lot to account for!

Finally, Toph pointed me in the direction of a blog he'd come across randomly of someone in Central America at the moment, who'd been writing about some of the places I went to when I visited Guatemala.

Not all losing

Heard back about both of the jobs I had interviews for today. Didn't get either of them. That must just mean there's a better opportunity out there for me somewhere... At least I had a nice Scottish man telling me if it was any consolation it was very close between me & the person who did get the job.

On a better note, had a fantastic game of squash tonight. Made a come-back from 0-7 to 9-9 in the first game (although Sarah did then proceed to win), lost the 2nd game (but that was also very close) & actually won a game :)

Back to losing, went to the Big 6 quiz last night with Kate, Toph & JJ. Enjoyed it more than the last few times I've been, probably partly because it's a while since the last time.

Brum Brum

Yay! At last mum's got around to finding a new car. This means that of Wednesday Lupy will be mine :)

That's my exciting news over with. Still waiting to hear back about the interviews I had last week. Have been quite busy since my last post, but can't be bothered to talk about any of it right now!

Lose Lose Situations

'tis how everything feels at the moment. Or maybe not quite everything, just most things.

I think life would be so much simpler if people were more transparent, or perhaps just had a sign above their head saying exactly what they were thinking/feeling/wanting. I'm sure that most of the time when people aren't quite saying things, or aren't telling the truth, it's to avoid upsetting either you or them or perhaps someone else. And I know I'm as big (if not bigger) a culprit as anyone else at doing this. But I expect if everyone was completely open and honest about everything we'd all end up far much happier.

Well, perhaps.

I guess sometimes it is probably nicer not to know the truth. I suppose it's impossible to go through life without ever upsetting anyone, so perhaps it'd be better not to worry quite so much about it.

hmm.. I sense this is all rambly & won't make any sense at all to anyone trying to read it!

Perhaps I'm not from Pluto after all

You came from heaven. Your gole in life is to help
others and to make the world a better place.
Some call you weak, but in reality your soul is
very strong. If only more people were like
you...


Where did you come from?
brought to you by Quizilla

Reminds me of a train journey in London when I was told I came from heaven, was talking to a scary weirdo at the time!

Men in kilts, Cheesecake & Football

My interview in Edinburgh seemed ok - lasted longer than the one I had in Leeds. Just have to hope they don't interview anyone who they like better, then perhaps I'll have a job offer soon!

Went for a little wander around Edinburgh after, stopping off at a coffee shop. Really regretted eating a big slice of chocolate cheesecake - it gave me a horrible pain in my stomach & I did for a moment think I was going to throw up all over the Royal Mile. Serves me right for being greedy I suppose.

Am hurting lots now - just played my first football match since before I went to El Salvador. Feel very unfit! Was hoping I'd just play a bit of it, but as there were only 11 of us I had to play for all of it. 2 of our players were off injured within the first 5 minutes and we lost 11-0, so not a great game!

One down, one to go

That's the interview in Leeds over with. Was ridiculously short. I'm figuring they were just deciding between me being someone who they definitely don't want or someone worth sending to their head office for a proper interview. Found it very difficult to answer any of the questions I was asked as the interviewer kept interrupting me.

Off to Edinburgh now to see Little Sarah, & of course go for that other interview. Wish me luck!

Long Time, No Post

Been feeling a bit like I've been getting ill for the last couple of days, but I seem ok today so that's a relief - especially as I've got a couple of interviews coming up. One in Leeds, one in Edinburgh - I'm sure those of you who know me will know which of those places I'd prefer to end up in! If either do decide to have me it will be a good job, & be more relevant to being a geologist than anything I'll ever find at the building society.

Work is slightly less manic now that people are back from holidays/have recovered from the mumps etc. I have my own desk now (only took 3 months!) so I started yesterday morning thinking I could at last organise my stuff properly without having to keep moving it about to whoever was away's desk. Things are never that simple! Turns out my computer doesn't have what I need on it so I have to use other people's anyway. The office atmosphere isn't all that great at the moment - people being tired/stressed & taking it out on others etc.

London

Had a lovely weekend visiting Ruth. We went exploring the Kent "countryside" on Saturday, before heading into London to meet Andy. A sudden rainburst almost of El Salvadorian standards meant we were all thoroughly drenched before we managed to seek refuge in a pub. Saturday evening Ruth and I went to see Joseph (the musical), which was amazing.

I went to watch Ruth playing football on Sunday. Ruth's team (Holmesdale Ladies) won 2-1. I got to be linesman (or woman, maybe) which was interesting seeing as I didn't really know what I was meant to be doing!

Got to experience London's morning commute yesterday on my way home. Reminded me that I definitely do not want to live/work in London.

Back to work today - everyone is very stressed about having too much work to do. I'm sure if they got on with it more instead of spending half the day complaining how much they had to do it'd get finished much quicker. After a relatively short wait (only about 30 minutes) for my bus home today & being told I couldn't use my return ticket because it related to the wrong bus I noticed the headline on tonight's Courier to be about Calderdale people favoring private cars over public transport for getting to work- I wonder why!