A Day in the Life of...

So... X-Online is no more. Actually, I was already scouting around for another job before I learned that the company was going under. I had stuck to the company for a while already though, and was there for nearly all of the time of 'Troubles'. During that time I saw my influence within the company grow, so I was sort of in a senior-ish position in terms of decisions made about procedures.

Anyway, I left X-Online sometime December and ended up in ETL Systems, which was one of their clients. At this point I had already stopped by ETL a few times to drop off boards which we had made in X-Online (since it was on the way home). I found their ad in the local paper, and I dropped by personally after work to hand in my CV. Noone seemed to be there, but a man came out of one of the outer porta-cabins and asked if he could help. I explained I was handing in my CV, and he took it from me. He then asked me some questions about myself and why I wanted the job and so forth. It was only shortly later on that I found out that he was actually one of the Managing Directors of the company!

I got the job, after an interview and a short exam. I didn't do very well at the exam at all, but they seemed to like how I at least knew -something-, and that I would've known how to answer them had I some resources.

Next time, I record how it's been like working at ETL thus far.

-Flash forward to present-
Gawds, my arm is killing me. Lifted some paper recycling bags the other day and they're still sore!

OMG, it's been a while, innit? The last update I had was to say that I had that job in the Peterchurch shop!

Things have changed since then, naturally. I got another job; this one at X-Online Technology. What do they do? They're a subcontractor who assemble PCBs. My job was to create localized documentation based on what our customer sent us.

I say 'my job WAS' because I don't work there anymore. In fact: nobody works there anymore, as they closed their doors at the end of 2007. Bad business planning and mismanagement is what I blame. Hell, there was a point where I was 2 months late receiving my paycheck! Thankfully, I got all the money I was owed (eventually), which I think is more than I can say for some of the workers there. I heard they've not gotten their severance pay still.

In any case, it was a nice little job, and I wielded quite a bit of influence there, I reckon. I made an impact, I think. Just a shame it didn't help in the end.

More later/tomorrow!

I've gotten a job now. It's part-time work at the local store. I was there earlier, learning how to operate the till and quickly getting the hang of it. I think I got slightly flustered when there were more than a few people waiting in the queue and I felt that I wasn't moving fast enough, but they were minor niggles which didn't seem to affect my performance.

Overall a good experience so far. Right now, because I still haven't learned gotten used to it yet, I'm a bit leery of working on me own, but I'm sure that'll change soon enough.

It sure has been a while since I last updated my Journal. I've been meaning to... but just felt lazy to do so. Oh well.

I took my Practical Driving Test shortly before Christmas. I did great! Problem is, I made one error of judgement that caused the Driving Tester to hit the brakes on our dual-control car. He failed me for that, but otherwise I would've passed with three minor faults. Failing that test did put a damper on my Christmas, but I did quickly set a retest for January.

Christmas was nice. Spent it home with the boys, the wife, and the wife's ex-husband (with whom I get along with very very well). Boys got quite a few pressies, and it is enjoyable to watch them open them up. I got some as well, of course, including Dawn of War: Dark Crusade. I got the wife a Creative Nano MP3 player... which she absolutely loved.

I got her two Christmas cards as well. Christmas cards are much much more of a tradition here. They send Christmas cards to everyone. Anyway, I got her two: one was a normal Christmassy one, and the other was slightly more R18. -^,

New Year was mundane. It is far from the same sort of excitement you expect in the Philippines, except maybe if you live in one of the bigger cities where people get sloshed and watch some nice (government/council-sponsored) fireworks. This year though, the weather got the better of many of the plans of several cities, so the Dubliners and Edinburghers just got sloshed instead.

After Christmas, I took another Practical Driving test. This time, I got a nice, chatty lady to administer my test. In a tribute to the professionalism of those DVLA Testers, I'm sure this tester would have failed me as well if I did something wrong, despite her obviously more jovial manner. Once again, I got three minor faults, which I keep getting told I should be proud of. I still am wary driving on my own, though.

Hmm... that's pretty much it. A long boring read, even for me. I must write here more often.

I drove a car through fog last night. First time I've ever done so. Thrilling experience. o.O

I passed my Theory Test! Perfect score! ^_^

Well... there were two parts, actually; a 35-point theory test (which I aced), and a 75-point Hazard Perception Test (which I got 54 in, which was passing). ^_^

I was wrong. Turns out I'm not quite a shoe-in for that Electronics Engineer post that IA Technology interviewed me for. Looks like they're looking for someone with broader experience...

but all hope is not lost! You see, I spoke to the Managing Director yesterday, and he doesn't want to write me off just yet. From the way he was speaking with me, it did sound like he sincerely wanted to hire me on. So, I'm still hopeful.

In the end, I did go and order World of Warcraft. I got it off Play.com, where it's going for just £10 now. I should be getting it on Wednesday or tomorrow. ^^

I do hope I also get a call this week from that company I applied for. I do hope I got the job.

Still no word from IA Technology about the job, but I'm still ever hopeful. I'll carry on looking for another job though if at the end of this week, they still haven't called or anything.

Life's a bit busier at the moment though, despite the lack of work. I'm doing my driving lessons again, and I'm getting used to manual transmission. I've got my theory test next week, and though I'm confident on passing it, I'll review a bit anyway.

I've also got some free courses booked, courtesy of South Wye Learning Center's Start Here program. Emma, who was my liaison there, was quite friendly and helpful, and she booked me a Health and Safety course. I'll get a certificate afterwards, which will be quite useful.

And I was in Hereford the other day, perusing the shops, when I saw that World of Warcraft had dropped in price by £10! With it being only £15 now, I was so tempted to get it. I may eventually do so. ^^

I am very happy to say that my job interview yesterday at IA Technology went exceedingly well. From the sound of it, they need a junior-level electronics engineer, which is exactly what I am. Great! Now, my only problem is getting there on time, since they start work somewhat early, which is a problem because I can't drive a car here, nor does the bus run that early. >.>

Got a call from IATechnology yesterday, which is an Electronics firm specializing in assembly, testing, and design. They want me to come in to see them! Hopefully it means a job... which I hope I can manage to do. Design has never been my specialty, so I must make sure to let them know.

For now though, I have to go to the South Wye Learning Center about some free certificate courses I can take with them. They might help me get a job in town, in case the one on Monday doesn't pan out. Well... here's hoping!

Today, we went out to treat Christopher for his birthday. What he wanted to do this year was to... GO WATERSKIING! Not just that... he wanted all of us to join him as well!

So we went there, and we all water-skied (skiid?). First time for me, and I think I did pretty well. The boys were both smashingly good, with Christopher even getting some praise from the boat pilot/instructor. Overall a fun day. Ended with fish and chips.

My limbs are really sore now, though. Really sore.

I think I'm coming down with something now; I've had a temperature all day, and I've been feeling peaked. Still... three cheers to the power of positive thinking! I try not to think I'm sick... and maybe that way, I won't be. ^^

Today was Christopher's Birthday! We had to get up a bit earlier than we should have done, but it really was a treat having to watch Christopher open up all the myriad presents he got for his birthday. I must say that he certainly did get a lot of things -- certainly a bloody lot more than I used to get on my birthday. Still, that partly is my own fault, since I did get him a lot of stuff myself! And overall, he was quite pleased by what he got... and I certainly won't lie and say that I won't benefit from some of his presents myself... like the new Warhammer rulebook. 

As a counterpoint to the highs of his birthday was the fact that Jonnie was home sick today. Poor kid. His asthma seems to have acted up this morning, and his mummy had to stay home the whole day to look after him. I certainly hope he's much better tomorrow.

One of the companies at the jobsfair -- ASDA, a supermarket chain which is opening a new superstore in Hereford (and causing rather copius amounts of traffic as a result of the construction work) -- called me up this evening. They want me to come over on Saturday morning to attend a group selection thingie. Kewl. 

And it's gonna be Christopher's birthday tomorrow morning! I sure do hope he enjoys the gifts we've gotten for him. Most of the stuff I got him were off EBAY! In fact... one of them is still due to arrive. I sorta do hope that it arrives tomorrow morning, and then I can wrap it up during the day and give it to him when he comes home from school. ;)

(Funnily enough... the little blighter came in just as I was writing this! And he was on the brink of reading it!)

Went to a jobsfair earlier today. Not that many places offering jobs, but I tried applying for a lot of them. A shame that X-Online, which is an electronics-based firm, wasn't there today. I'm sorta tempted to imagine that the reason they weren't there was because I had already sent them an application last week. XD

On another note, bloody traffic in Hereford is as bad as ever. Took me 30 min. longer again to get home. Grr!

I've been reading quite an interesting book called Liber Chaotica Vol. 4: Tzeentch. It's basically Warhammer fluff that revolves around the Chaos God named Tzeentch, who is the patron of deceit, schemes, change, and magic. Overall, a very deep and insteresting volume, and one which is actually inspiring creative energies within me towards actually creating some Warhammer figures... if only I had any sculpting talent!

Oh well.

Me wife's still not feeling better today, poor thing. At least the Younger seems to be recovering now. I just hope that the other one doesn't catch it too... and I hope neither will I. Big day tomorrow: a job fair in town. Hopefully it's useful.

...on EBAY! It means I've gotten 10 positive feedback comments from other people on it. Hurrah. I don't know whether to be thrilled or worried.

Well, I guess it's time for me to start blogging again. Not for any particular reason, mind... I just feel like it. :)

Sorta fitting that today I write about the fact that two people in the house are ill again. One of them's me wife, and the other's the younger son. Still sniffles at the moment, and I do hope it doesn't get worse... but I'm already expecting that the rest of us will catch the illness too soon enough.

Oh, and I showed Christopher the Chaos Hordes Army book today. It was soooo nice to hear him say 'thank you!' after I gave it to him! He's been so much wanting to get his hands on that book. Well, soon enough he'll be getting the one for his army too: the Dark Elves book. His birthday's on Thursday. :)

Not me; it's one of my (step)sons. He threw up in the night, poor thing. My wife knows exactly how he feels, since she's been feeling sick the past couple of days as well. She believes it to be some sort of bug that's hit her, and now him.

I sure do hope that I do -have- a resilience against such 'bugs', since overall I tend to have a clear picture of health.