Exciting Times

I’ve had quite a busy week this week. At the start of the week I had 2 job interviews lined up, one on Tuesday to work as an order processor at a windows company, and the other on Wednesday to train as a shift manager at OneStop. I was really scared about the first one, but Tom put my mind at rest a bit as he had an interview there the day before so he could tell me what to expect. Afterwards I wasn’t sure how it had gone as it had lasted over an hour, but had mostly consisted of the guy talking to me and telling me about the job. There weren’t really that many interview-style questions so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but they rang me back that afternoon and told me that they’d put me on the shortlist to come back the next day for a second interview. So I cancelled my other interview at OneStop and went back there the next morning to find that it wasn’t really an interview at all – the other guy in the office spoke to me for about 10 mins as if to try and suss me out and then the original bloke (Jerry who will be my immediate boss) came in and offered me the job. I was pretty shocked as I thought I would have to go through the interview process all over again, but actually they just asked if I wanted the job and it only lasted 15 minutes. I was very surprised when I was told that I was the person at the top of the list who had impressed them the most. This was a job that I went for because compared to everything else the pay was really good (advertised as £7.50 an hour although I will be starting on £7), but I never thought I would get anywhere near it. So now I am employed and I start on Monday. To start with I felt very excited, but now that that’s worn off I pretty much just feel terrified. I know starting any new job is scary, but I am particularly scared that I won’t know what I’m doing as it seems incredibly complicated and I don’t really understand exactly what my job entails (lol) and I will need to learn a lot about windows, ha! Hopefully I will have very good training!

The other exciting part of my week is that on Thursday I went to the first session of my Introduction to Counselling course and I loved it. I was really nervous, not least of all about the drive there as it takes about an hour and a quarter and I don’t have much experience of driving on the motorway on my own. The journey there was actually fine, but when I got there there are now massive signs up at the entrance to the car park saying that it is now open only to staff permit holders and that if you don’t park in an authorised space you will be clamped. I parked somewhere that I thought might have been an authorised space, but I really wasn’t sure if I was allowed to park there or not and so I worried all the time about my car getting clamped! I left really early to avoid the rush hour traffic and as a result I arrived there over an hour early, and the waiting around did not help my nerves. But I really enjoyed it, everyone there seemed really nice and the session was mostly spent getting to know each other, and I found it really interesting finding out why other people wanted to do the course and what they hoped to get out of it. The journey back was ok but not brilliant as it was raining all the way and my windscreen wipers are rubbish, and I had to keep putting the heating on to unsteam the windscreen and then I’d get too hot so have to have it off for a while, and then need to put it on again, and so on. I also realised that a lot of my route is not lit, and something that freaks me out is being in the car on my own in the dark when there are no streetlights. So that was fun, and I imagine it will be even funner when the journey there is also in darkness as well as the journey back. Also at one point the tomtom (satnav) fell off from where it had been stuck onto my windscreen. I managed to catch it and it was still directing me home, but had stopped talking, which was helpful. Luckily by that point in the journey I knew my way home pretty well. So in many ways it was quite an eventful journey, and not in many good ways. It’ll be interesting to see how I get on next time as I won’t be able to leave until 5 because of my job and I’m scared of getting stuck in the rush hour traffic and being late.

In other news I have been trying to shop for work clothes, but I’m finding it impossible to find any, even finding shirts is a real struggle! I went swimming yesterday and may start going to a step class at the local gym, although I need to check I can go without becoming a member. It’s my birthday on Tuesday, I’m 22 which is fairly exciting, but unfortunately I’ll be working on my birthday. I’m planning a meal out that evening with my parents and Tom and his family, but not all of his family will be available. Hopefully his mum and sister will come though and it should be lovely.

This is far too long so I will now stop, but I may write again soon about how the job’s going and about my birthday.

xxx