Category Archives: UK

Meeting in Manchester

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Tuesday saw me rushing through a gazillion more little tasks and trying to find stuff in the cellar (where the hell are all my shoes anyway?) before driving down to Manchester where I was to stay with Andy before my interview. I’ve not had the paperwork back about the driver position I was offered (and accepted) from someone else yet, so I don’t feel too guilty! This one’s for an IT role covering the entire snowy resort area in France. A lot of responsibility and a lot of variety. I guess we’ll see…

I set off late, but had no traffic problems the entire way down. This is a good thing as it’s over four hours (in my mum’s car) to get from Perth to Manchester. I arrived after 10pm, but still managed to locate a KFC for supper before crashing at Andy’s (not in the car!)

The interview seemed to go OK, but didn’t cover any new ground. I think it was just to ensure that I wasn’t a psycho with “KILL” tattooed on my forehead. I bluffed it anyway – they didn’t see through me. Bwahahaha! Later in the afternoon, the head of IT gave me a call to save me traveling all the way to Fleet which was nice of him. We talked for about 30 minutes and I feel fairly positive that I’ll have a job offer in a couple of days. Fingers crossed, folks!

I met Andy for lunch and started updating this beast in the afternoon. Before dinner, we went to play 5-a-side with some of Andy’s work colleagues. I think I was on the winning team (you know how you lose count) and I scored three goals. All past Andy and all with my left foot!

I’m sat here typing up this final post to bring me up to date with the remnants of a spicy pizza tingling my tongue and the taste of pumpkin beer lingering on what remains of my taste buds. My legs ache and I think I’ve pulled a muscle, but not a bad day all in all.

Desperate in Dundee

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A lot of you won’t be old enough to have heard of Desperate Dan, but I am. He’s a main character in the Dandy comic, and has been since 1937. He’s also one of the landmarks in Dundee, where I spent the weekend. There’s a whacking statue of him in the middle of town, with a smaller Minnie The Minx in the background.

I’ve been to Dundee a couple of time, staying with Adam and Loz who I met for dinner again this time. For a change, though, I stayed with the lovely Leah who I met in Singapore many months ago. This is the first time I’ve actually gone through the town itself as on the other occasions I was visiting for work, so it was just a chance to catch up with my friends over a KFC that my employers paid for. It was cool to actually see the place and Leah was great company.

On the Friday night, we met Adam and Lorraine for dinner in Bar Rio. Nice place, very varied menu, superb food. The only hard bit was getting anyone to take our money at the end! I think we could have snuck out without paying. But everyone else was too honest.

Saturday evening was spent indulging in a great Scottish tradition – drinking heavily. We started in one bar which was showing the rugby World Cup final. I think myself and four girls behind me from Lancashire were the only ones supporting England (though in honesty I still wasn’t that bothered with it being egg-chasing). The rest of the bar were cheering the (victorious) Springboks. Hey ho.

A good night was had as we moved across a couple of bars. My thanks to all of Leah’s generous friends who kept me well stocked on Brown Ale!

On Sunday, we loafed (OK, we slept in to avoid being hung over) and I headed down to my folks’ again for a superb Sunday roast. Oh, how I’ve missed that! Again, I buried myself in paperwork, emails, web updates and so on. Through Monday and Tuesday I managed to shred around 18 months of bank statements, junk mail and the like. It filled a whole bin sack.

Monday was much of the same – trying to organise things, and getting an invitation to another job interview in Manchester on Wednesday. I also turned down another interview for an admin position (all in France) as my French wouldn’t have been good enough. In the evening I popped back up to Dundee – originally to watch the footie, but as it was on Setanta I couldn’t watch it at Adam’s (he has Sky) so I went over to Leah’s and we watched Ratatouille instead. While munching on proper chip shop chips and battered sausage. Mmmmm…

Mad dogs and 11 Englishmen

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Back with the ‘rents and the poochies for a couple of days. I’ve got a huge stack of paperwork to get through, things to dig out, comics to read (19 months’-worth of 2000AD, Judge Dredd and Viz…), arrangements to make, clothes to find… Gah.

Of course, the upside is a lack of rent, great food cooked for me, dogs to play with, 19 months’-worth of comics to read… Or it would be if I had the time around everything else! The job thing’s moving on apace. I had another offer for an interview for an administrator’s positions which I had to turn down as the French requirement was above my standard. I can just about manage conversational if I choose the subject and talking like a 5 year-old is allowed.

I popped down to a local hotel to watch the England v Russia game and wished I’d not bothered. God grief. After six 3-0 wins, we throw away what should have been an easy three points. However, I was heartened by the attitudes of the locals who all wished England well. I guess they were on a high with Scotland’s recent run of form – which if course came to an end the same night. Not good for either of us!

McBoarding

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Snow. In Scotland. Indoors.

There’s an Xscape which has opened recently in a place called Braehead to the west of Glasgow and it took very little convincing for my uncle to pack my little cousin’s wellies and waterproofs in a rucksack and take us there. It’s not the cheapest day out, especially outside of term time, but we all had great fun.

Wee Lou and Stewart did sledging while I had an hour of snowboarding for £21 – thank you to Stewart for insisting on paying. The snow was pretty good and I was surprised by how empty it was, given the school holidays. I was also suprised that in one hour I only fell once.

Even with three-month gaps between sessions (the last time I boarded was in Dubai), it’s an easy hobby to pick back up. I know it sounds like a cheesy phrase, but it’s like riding a bike. Without the wheels, handlebars and plastic drinks cups shoved in the spokes to make VRRRRRRRR noises.

I also got to visit Granny A (Granny B – or Y, depending on how I code these things – will be graced with my presence tomorrow) . As usual, I was told how great it was to be seen. Either my grans have learned to act very well over the last 80+ years, or it’s genuine. As if I have any doubts! It’s strange that after roughly 20 months since my last visit, she still doesn’t seem to have changed. Mind, I’d not change her for the world anyway so that’s hardly a complaint.

Oh, and I treated myself to a 500Gb external hard drive from Argos. The only other place I looked was the Maplin catalogue and Argos undercut them by around £100 on price. Ouch. Admittedly, Maplin’s stuff looked way cooler but I need storage space, not gimmickry right now. With any luck, I can rip a few dozen DVDs onto it to watch while I’m in France.

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Wee Lou!

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And off up to Scotland for a couple of weeks. Rather than heading directly to see my parents, I drove up the M74 to Glasgow to see my little cousin who I’ve missed a lot. I’ve actually missed around a quarter of her life during my travels as she’s only just over six years old. Her mum also raised almost £500 for my charity walk for which I’m incredibly grateful.

My cousin’s changed a lot in 19 months, which is to be expected at her age! She’s at the “losing teeth” stage as well as the “cheeky” stage. This doesn’t stop her being at the “gorgeous, endearing and the most wonderful kid in the entire world” stage as well.

So, a couple of days here and then up to the folks’. Then Dundee. Then back to England!