pmsumner

I'm really enjoying myself at work now. I've been there a month and I took an afternoon's worth of calls on Friday. I feel that I am getting there with the knowledge, and the hardest thing now is figuring out quickly enough what machines are what, and what machines have what capabilities. Not made easy by calling at least 3 differing machines the same name........... Great idea by marketing and/or product development.

The people I work with. They're nice people, and I enjoy spending time with them. I do feel a bit odd at the moment because a lot of them are really struggling with the move to Warrington, and don't see a future with the company. They feel quite let down, I think. They seem to be in the same mindset that I was in 6 weeks ago, and I don't want to be there. I'll just have to be relentlessly optimistic at them :)

Personal life - good and improving all the time. Having weekends is such a bonus! I love being able to get places and do things with Jane. Friday night we went to see Sue Perkins, and as we got to the theatre really early and were in the 1st tier, indulged in a spot of audience watching. It was so funny - we're looking at the people coming in going... "stereotypical lesbian", "oh my... look at those sensible shoes", "is that a man?" and so on. We didn't know that Sue Perkins was a lesbian. We really had no idea! That certainly explained the audience, which I estimate to be roughly 50% lesbian couples/groups and 50% middle-age, male, Radio 4 listeners :)

She was very funny, however. Perhaps not the funniest thing I've ever seen, but I really enjoyed the show, and we had a good night out at the quays, going for a meal and a show should always be fun.

I've pretty much decided I'm giving up the mystery shopping lark. I can't do it, these days. Working Monday-Friday 9-5 isn't good, because most shops that I want to do are only open those hours. I'll keep an eye open and stay registered with the various companies, pick up the occasional job here and there that I can do in the evenings or weekends, but not much.

My flat is there, I think. There's a few things which I am still struggling to find space for, and I still haven't got any bloomin' doorstops, so am using random things to prop open doors. Must resolve this tomorrow evening with a trip to B&Q. Everything that I want and need seems to have found itself a place, though I'm still at a loss as to what to do with my old PC. I want to rebuild it, but know that the only possible reason for that is pure geekery. Until my conflict between geek and space resolves itself, I'm left with a full tower case, monitor and loads of assorted PC junk lying around taking up space which I really could do with.

Loving my new phone. Seriously never thought I'd actually use the walkman side of it, but I am! A 512 Mb memory card included gives such a lot of room for music that it's actually useful.

It's time to start arranging for anyone who wants to come see to come... name your dates if you do.

I was in Worksop doing a video job and after the job I went round the corner, out of sight of the store, and was reviewing the tape. I found that it was an awful recording (1st of the day, not 100% used to it) and had to go back in using the ol' backup scenario.

As I was packing up the equipment, plugging it all together and making sure it was recording, some guy came up to me and asked me if I was a [insert company name here].

I responded with a "what?" and he said that if they spotted a [insert company name here] then he thought that they got some money! I responded with a "what" again, and said that I didn't know anything about that. Only then did it twig that he was the guy doing the shopfitting whilst I was doing the job.

Why why why why why did he do that?! Now that shop needs to be redone, I cna't ever do that one again, the good service I received whilst in the store will be completely ignored and they run the risk of getting a poor shop next time. It also completely threw my plans into chaos, because I was hoping to do another 4 in the same area which I obviously couldn't do!

3 succeeded, one I think I forgot to plug the 'AV In' cable in. Think I might have got cocky and not checked properly. In future I will ensure that I have a picture before starting recording. D'oh. I got 5 minutes of black, so that needs redoing tomorrow or Wednesday, along with the other 10 shops that I've got. At least a lot of them are in the same towns.

Am shattered right now. Is surely teatime.

Today I have updated my master list. There's a few problemmatic areas, mainly revolving around Sky, Force9 and BT.

Sky are really busy, so I'm currently on hold to them for the 3rd time before I get bored of being told every 30 seconds that my call is important, each time thinking that I've got through to someone. Force9's phone lines seem to be engaged somehow, that should surely never happen with a contact centre? BT haven't yet responded to the web form I sent them, so I might end up calling them soon.

Ack, I just realised I went into town to post some letters and deposit a cheque (no payment received for the ebay item yet) and I forgot to pick up a redirection pack. Will potter to Agnes Road later, the staff in there are nice (and one of them is gorgeous - tall and leggy).

6 minutes and counting. 10 minutes... bored now. Will try at midnight :)
OK, post office, here we come. Do I have time to go to Doncaster and Rotherham before Timpsons close? Hmm, will try. May as well.

I've been offered video MS training. This is fabulous news because video work is paid very nicely indeed. Not sure about the equipment but I'm assuming so far that the equipment will be provided by the company, as they're a decent bunch.

Tum-te-tum.
Interview tomorrow. Not looking forward to it at all. Not so much the interview but I'm dreading having to be out so bleeding early, I'm considering not going into work tomorrow afternoon as I will be truly exhausted. They didn't do the reasonable thing and give me a half-days holiday - so I don't think I shall be reasonable back.

Having a really crappy time of it at work. I can't seem to get across to anybody who cares how utterly bored I am. I've tried, Bobknows I've tried. But their pig-headedness and insistence on callscallscalls at any expense is a stupid one. I really need out.

I'm 35 pound up on the day. 15 staked. 50 back, plus i get the stake and fee back from NOP :) So it's a good day so far!

Sent off 3 emails/covering letters to agencies along with CVs, applied for a further 2 jobs through CWJobs and another one off another site whose name I can't remember. These are all for jobs in the North West - Warrington, Cheshire, Manchester. It's all good, right?

Today, I spent most of my time at work trying not to get annoyed. Things are busy. Not just for us lot, who are being dumped on yet again but for everyone this time. Why are we being dumped on? Long story really. In short...

( MiniRant about work )

So, I'm not particularly happy at the moment with work. I've had a bad week with MSing - I've started work with a new company (SiteReports) who do photos of billboard advertising to check that adverts are in good condition. Unfortunately, the very second I decided to go and do these photos, the sun came out and I couldn't get any good pictures because the way the adverts were all facing meant I was looking into the sun. So now I need to do them again... I sent some paperwork back to Direct Excellence from the West Felton post office the other day which they are now claiming not to have received - meaning I have had to fill in the forms again. I had a report sent back because I juxtaposed two sections and they couldn't deal with fixing it themselves...

I'm having a really bad week.
Tomorrow is going to be really bad too. I have 3 banks, 2 photos, 2 coffee shops and a burger job to do, results to input and a gym to visit before Jane arrives - assuming she does come. I know I know, I accept all this work, I didn't have to... but I'm such a sucker. Amazing number... by the end of this tax year I'll have been paid somewhere in the region of £3,000 by MSing. Yes that includes reimbursement, but I don't have the figure for "just fees" yet :)

[Edit: Having updated my spreadsheet (yet again), I now know my total fees rec'd are... *drumroll* £1,580. Not too shabby. It's the test purchases that really push that figure to what's up above, and the expenses (printing, milage, parking). Of course, I calculate that I can claim about half of that back as business expenses on my tax form, so we'll see what happens...]

Goal 1: On target. Mostly. Today I couldn't push the water down, so I only did 1 litre. Went shopping and came home with a trolley full of healthy food - not a single naughty thing. What a feat of will it was to walk past the 2-for-£5 GReen and Black's ice cream.

Goal 2: Last week made it, this week it's only Monday, so I'm off tonight. Then I'll be off again on Wednesday with any luck. Jane's here on Friday, so I should be able to go in the evening.

Work - have picked up some work from SiteReports at last. Unfortunately they didn't bother telling me about it, so only found out about it when I got a phone call from them 3 days after it was due. *sigh* How poor is that? On a positive note, I did get an email about some passport agency work from them, so fingers crossed it'll all turn out well. Sounds a little on the complex side, but should be interesting enough.

Real work? Sucks even more than it used to. 'nuff said.