Bali Reflections
SpoilerWellp, I've been to Indonesia, and I've left it again. I certainly threw myself into the deep end for my first ever foray outside Australian borders. All in all, I definitely think it was a good idea - even if my timing wasn't the greatest (I've never seen so much rain in a year as I have in the last 12 months!).
Certain events have left a slightly bad taste in my mouth with Indonesia, but I don't intend to let it darken my view of the place. Because it really is stunning, the architecture is fascinating, and most of the people are lovely. I fully intend to go back there, not least because I haven't seen Borobodur yet - I just remembered I didn't even get around to going to Tanah Lot, and that was just down the road! I think I'll try to get the hang of riding a motorbike, too, and rent one next time I there. I think that bit of independence will really go a long way towards making the experience.
I haven't really been in a good mood for reflection, and I've forgotten all the stuff I wanted to say, so I'll just talk about toilets now, instead. And never before have I experienced such an astounding array of water closets! I mean, in Australia you have your "throne" with toilet paper on a roll next to it, and mostly out in the bush, you have your drop-dunnies - a seat of varying luxury positioned precariously at the top of a sinisterly echoing pit of stench and despair; if you're really unlucky, it might even be full to the top.
But in Indonesia, there's so much more than that. There's the first one, as above, with the nice seat with a flush and loo paper. Then there's that, but instead of paper you have a squirt gun. And then there's the squat toilets.
For those who don't know, squat toilets are loos set right down in the ground itself. You put one foot on either side of it, squat down, position your bottom just so, and... you get the picture. These ones are usually (always? I forget) accompanied by a scoop-and-bucket (they have a proper name, but I forget what it was). The idea, as far as I could gather, was that you sort of splash the water up under yourself and hope it does the job. To "flush" the squat toilet, you poured some of the water into it.
For those travelling in Indonesia, I strongly recommend always having a good supply of tissues on your person - you can never be sure that any toilet you go into will have any, although the squirt gun thing is okay. I would also suggest always having some soap or hand sanitiser, although I did make do without it.
And believe me, if you go to Indonesia, you will become very well acquainted with the toilets.
Entry 7: UK Arrival
SpoilerI must admit, I've been a real gloomy guts for my first couple of weeks here, starting right off the bat with the plane trip: my flight from Kuala Lumpur to London was delayed and no one told me, but I should have known still, and it resulted in Archonic_Energy waiting for me at Gatwick for a full 5 or 6 hours (sorry!). His sister very kindly picked us up (what with it being 1am and all), and I stayed the night at his house.
The next day he showed me around London, including a very tasty burger for brunchfast. We saw a lot of the major landmarks, I think: Parliament House and the Great Clock attached to it (the one what contains Big Ben, though sadly I didn't get to hear him), Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, a ferry ride on the Thames, and a ride on a double decker bus (whee!). We picked up The Succubus along the way, too. Also I owe them both lots of money, but contrary to what I intended I don't think I'll be able to pay them back at the meet-up
Anyway, they got me to the airport, which brings me to my next downer: because of trains, we were 10 minutes late. I was able to make a run for the flight (I seriously don't know if the gate could have been further away), but I had to leave my suitcase behind. I was tired and stressed and in the wrong timezone and worried about the UK and it was all I could do not to start bawling in the middle of the flight.
When I got to Glasgow I found KuReshtin, who informed me that Archonic_Energy and The Succubus had decided to post the suitcase up to me, so I'd get it in a few days rather than the 2 weeks 'til the meet-up. They wouldn't tell me how much it cost to do that, so I'm pretty sure it's a lot, which means I owe them even more... But there's not much I can do about that now, so I'll forget about it for the time being.
So then I was in Largs. I think overall I like this place, for all gloomy weather and gloomy job prospects and other things have been bringing me down. I've walked from one end of the town almost to the other, and a lot of the way through it, and I've got its shops staked out. One of the butchers is particularly exciting: they've got kangaroo steak and sausages (better than the ones I've had in Australia), sadly no 'roo mince; and venison and quail and rabbit and frogs' legs... I'll be trying a lot of different meats while I'm here, I think.
Ku's taken me to his gaming groups and to karaoke. On Burns' Night a couple of his friends gave us a tasty dinner, including the traditional haggis (stuffed in chicken). Ku says it wasn't a particularly good one, but it seemed alright. Tasted vaguely of marrow.
Anyway, I've joined a couple of games here - having to learn new systems an' all. I think maybe one of the guys doesn't really like me (and he's on these forums, so that could be interesting), but his girlfriend is just gorgeous and gave me the giggles the other night something rotten. Everyone seems pretty cool - and I was rather surprised to discover that KuReshtin is far from the only Swede in this area. It's practically overflowing with 'em!
So, food... As I said, I've tried a bit of haggis, but I'd like to try a good one, and properly so I can actually taste it. I've also tried something called Irn Bru, a sort of softdrink. I think it tastes sort of like a nice, less sweet creaming soda, or something - it reminds me of something, anyway. I'm looking forward to trying a deep fried Mars Bar.
But the weirdest, freakiest, most disturbing thing I've come across is this: they serve cold chips/crisps as a side dish to burgers and similar. Burger, salad, coleslaw and crisps. I guess, logically, it doesn't not make sense - I mean, crisps are made of exactly the same stuff as hot chips. But... it's so weird.
On Australia Day - the day after Burns' Night - it snowed. That was pretty awesome. I'll post a picture of my terribly Aussie Australia Day in a minute. I know it hasn't really snowed much, but it's still more than it did in Armidale last year, and there's been a bunch hanging around on the hills surrounding, so I reckon that's pretty cool, anyways.
I've seen a bit of wildlife here, including SQUIRRELS!, but mostly birds. There's a cute little black and white thing that runs around the place, for one. Also the gulls are frigging huge, and the pigeons are pretty massive too. The crows, on the other hand, are little, far less intimidating than Australian ones, and kinda cute. I saw a starling, and I'm not sure whether they're as despised here as they are in Australia.
I've been saying this whole time that I'll do lots of walks everywhere, and I haven't failed in that although I need to make sure I maintain the momentum. As I said, I've walked all up and down Largs. I also, on advice from one of Ku's friends, went up the hillside at the back of Largs. There's several walking tracks there, but I still managed to get lost (well, as lost as you can get when you can see the town right there, you just can't find a track to get to it without getting covered in mud). I followed a sign to the "Hendie Chambered Tomb" or something like that. Went past a pile of rocks which seemed like something significant. Turns out that was the tomb. Went up the hill, found a spot with a good view (don't think I found the look-out, though, unless it was the spot with the seats, but that wasn't up very high or anything), found a little hollow that looked like it was occupied by horny drunken teenagers on a fairly regular basis, saw an absolutely MASSIVE ship, and wandered and slipped my way back down again.
On my way back, I came across a Thing. Dunno what it was. It was about 3m x 2m, I think, reddish stone or concrete, these big slabs in the ground that came up to a peak along the middle, sort of like a fairly flat roof - not sure whether it was meant to be like that, or if shifting earth had forced it into that position. One one of the long sides, a set of undergrowth-covered stairs was leading up to it. I have no idea how old it was, and there weren't any other buildings anywhere near it.
Next week, I'm going to get up relatively early, grab a sandwich and a bottle of water, and walk right up the next lot of bigger hills behind the one I climbed.
I think that's the main of things. Now I'm just getting ready for that meet-up whatsit thingamabob...
Entry 8: Meet-up, Woooooo! Also: In Ur Kingdom, Takin Ur Tax Monies
SpoilerThe meet-up was just the best.
So, we got ready and went off. Ku and I passed through Glasgow to pick up DarkCorax and Dvil. We found them near a ferris wheel (what is it with Britland and ferris wheels?). Then we... Well... We drove. Not much interesting to talk about there.
Then we got to the hotel, and were greeted by half a dozen faces pressed up against a window. We got our keys and then went up and met everyone (well, everyone who was there already, anyway). We faffed about a bit, talking and hinting at the possibility of making decisions, and then we started walking to look for somewhere for dinner. Didn't take as long as might be expected, as there was an Indian restaurant next block over with an elephant out the front, so clearly that was where we had to eat.
We had to wait a while for them to find a table big enough, but they managed it. We all piled in and ordered our food and got to know one another a bit. After a while The Succubus managed to get onto us, and we told him where we were, and he found us and ate also. And then back to the hotel, where we sat around talking and I did some origami and Qwaz, I believe it was, made a pretty great paper aeroplane. Then bed, chatting with Koorly and Castaras...
And then up in the morning again! First was the Quest for Breakfast. We went looking for a... what was it? Some supermarket, anyway, we think. We found a sign and went towards the building to which it was attached, and found... an office block
So then we went in the other direction, eventually found another sign and followed it and found the supermarket-with-a-cafe (which is pretty weird, btw). And there we had breakfast. And it was okay.
Then back home, grabbing stuff, and heading over to The Venue. We girls got shuttled over last, cuz there wasn't enough car space (and also I'm slow). There we found a few others already there, and a whole lot of games. And then we played them.
I ended up playing Munchkin (I think?), Python Munchkin?, the OotS game (short version) and with Totally Guy a strange story-telling card game and... Cassarone? Cassatorone? Something like that. Archonic_Energy eventually joined in the latter. I'd quite like to play both again, and I kinda really liked playing a game just me 'n' Guy. I'm pretty sure I'm missing a game, too. I wish I'd gotten to play the Ankh-Morpork game, that looked like a lot of fun.
'course, then I got distracted by SNOW! Lots and lots of SNOW!It was proper snow. Proper, stay-on-the-ground, enough-to-do-stuff-with snow! Oh, how I romped...
I don't know how long I was out there for. An hour maybe? Dvil, Thufir and Tasroth (and DarkCorax? Or was it just the 4 of us at first?) went out there first, played around a bunch. I attempted to make a Snow-Roy. It failed miserably. I felt bad keeping these guys who clearly weren't as excited as I was out in the cold so we started to go in, but then others came out! And snowball fights began!And I slipped over and hurt my knee and The Succubus dropped snow on my head!
It's okay, I forgive you ;)
In amongst the snowfights, we made a snowdalek. And it was good. And then we finally went inside again. And then not long afterwards I checked outside and someone had destroyed our dalek
By that time it was getting latish, so we headed down into the bar downstairs. After a couple of games of pool, I returned to nerdiness. Specifically, some of us set up a game of Battlestar Galactica, and Grlump suggested that the rest of us try out Werewolf. I'd never played it before, and it certainly wasn't what I expected. But it was amazing. I loved it, so hard. I was a wolf for both the first two games, and noone guessed
Werewolf lasted all the way over to Grlump and Fifty-Eyed Fred's place. We walked there, pausing to admire the layer of snow on the cars (and the closeness of the two). That, by the way, is when I realised the sole of one of my shoes was broken and allowing snow to accumulate inside it
There place was nice, but... uh... cosy. The Succubus had a nap while we all kept playing. It got changed up a bit - the wolves became Danes and I thing people from Newcastle or somewhere and dirty rotten Kiwi illegal immigrants. I got to try mead, too, which Grlump very kindly allowed us to taste. I was a little disappointed I didn't like it more off the bat, but it may be something I could develop a taste for.
After that, it was goodbyes to those two and back to the hotel. People gradually dropped off to their beds one by one, until eventually it was us girls and a couple of guys hanging out in Thufir's room (he got a room all to himself 'cuz he's special). And, at about 4 or 5am, the last of us went off too.
I was very sad that the next morning I didn't get to say goodbye to Archonic_Energy. I swear we thought we might've heard a door knock a good 3 times, but each time we got up to check and noone was there so we figured we were wrong and went back to bedA real shame.
In any case, that day goodbyes were distributed around a trip to a Media Museum. Some pretty interesting stuff there, actually, including some clips of some very strange animation - including Insektors! Which noone except me seems to remember! Also Ku was on TV for a bit.
Eventually it was Ku, Dvil, DarkCorax and my turns to say goodbye, and we piled into the car and headed back up north. The countryside was quite pretty, all covered in snow... We dropped Dvil and DarkCorax back at the ferris wheel in Glasgow again, and then back home to Largs. Much appreciation of KuReshtin for getting us all down there and back.
I had so much fun. So much, you guys. I'm very nearly desperate to do it again, so I really hope I can be around long enough to go to another meet-up - even better if I can manage to do a few around the world! I really hope I can catch up with just about everyone who was there again. I don't know why, but I can't get over how cool I think Grlump is, and I need to get a picture of Fifty-Eyed Fred looking terribly English, and I want to talk to Fredaintdead more, and I want to hang out with Cassie and Koorly, and I want the Scots to show me around Glasgow, and and and... You get the idea. Hearted the thing so very much. Why can't we have another next week?
Not much has been happening back in Largs. The main thing is that I've applied for the Jobseeker's Allowance here, and I've really gotta find a job. But, at the very least the allowance means I can hold on here for a while longer than I was afraid I could. Even if I don't have enough to travel outside the country, I should be okay for travelling within it, especially if I can get couches for a lot of it. I'm quite curious to see how much I get... Oh, also, I had to get a UK bank account for it. So I have a UK bank account now. I hope I get my card and some money soon, so I can go see Thufir's play...
My photos of the meetup can be seen here.
Entry 9: A Better Major-General Has Never Sat a Gee. RODE A HORSE.
SpoilerOn Wednesday, I caught an afternoon train to get to Newcastle to see Thufir in Pirates of Penzance.
The trip over was okay. At Edinburgh, I would've been totally lost and probably would've missed my train if it weren't for a very kind train conductor who showed me exactly where I needed to go. That station is really weird...
In any case, I eventually got to Newcastle, where Tasroth was there to pick me up. He was rather out of breath, having just run a block or two to get around traffic to meet me on time. Then he and his mum took me home, and I slept on their sofa-bed for the next 4 nights. Tasroth's room was rather entertaining, what with being full of D&D books and all the Ring books and all the oots books (I only managed to read one of them
So, what did we do... Good question, I have a truly terrible memory. I know we went to Beamish, cuz I have the photos to prove it!
Anyway, Beamish. It's a sort of village set up like it was in the old days. It was quite interesting. We tried - and largely failed - to play with the hoop-and-stick thingies kids used to play with. Thufir, being the photogenic dastard he is, looked like he was dancing Singing In The Rain style. I, on the other hand, just looked tarded.
Also there were ponies, chickens, and a picture of a couple of kids that looked like they would've been utter brats. And, of course, the lolly shop. Many lollies were acquired.
On the way back from Beamish, we stopped at the Angel of the North - a really huge iron statue of an aeroplane-like figure. I would've expected it to be commemorating a WWII fighter plane building industry or something like that, but apparently it's actually for miners. It's pretty ridiculously photogenic too.
That night Tasroth took me to his D&D game. I think there were a lot of in-jokes involved, and it was my first time playing 4th ed AND playing a psion, but it was a lot of fun.
So that was Thursday. Friday was the day GrlumpTheElder turned up, but before that Tasroth showed me around Newcastle. Saw the sights, lots of very old buildings and stuff. He also took me to two - count 'em, two - gaming stores. I just had to get my nephew a birthday present (little figuriney things of all the Doctors), some dice - including mini dice for jewellery making - and a new "unicorns vs. dinosaurs" t-shirt.
Then we went and got Grlump! :D There was a rather dapper fellow in a steampunk outfit at the train station. We were speculating that he might've been the friend Grlump mentioned, but it turned out to be just some guy in a steampunk outfit. He very kindly told me where I could buy his boots, but they're way out of my price-range.
Anyway! Grlump! We went and got dinner at a pub! I was gonna pay for all our dinners, but my card "didn't work" so Grlump had to pay and now I owe him (more on that later). And then: Pirates of Penzance!
We just barely got there on-time. It was really, really good. It'd been a long time since I saw it, so it was nearly like seeing it for the first time again. I got to see Thufir sing for the first time, and he was quite excellent. Second best-dressed person in the whole play. Although he did forget his hat once
After the play, I was accosted by one of the actors, a very tall man, shouting my name and hugging me. Turns out he was Hazyshade, whom I once knew as Sushi Monster. I totally remember him, except I was sure he was female.
Then we went to the pub. I talked to some of the actors and Thufir and Tasroth and Grlump, went to get a bit of a round of drinks... and that's when I realised why my card wouldn't work when I tried to get money earlier.
Basically: I had no money in it. More specifically: I had checked that I had enough in my account before I left, but I had failed to take into account the $50 that was still getting transferred back to my investment account every fortnight because my attempt to cancel it hadn't stuck for some reason. So I had, in fact, negative 20-odd dollars in my account. Had to spend the rest of my time with exactly no money. So that was embarrassing. And now I owe Thufir and Tasroth and their family a bunch, and also Grlump for the dinner and Hazyshade for the drinks
ANYWAY. Then it was Saturday. Grlump was gonna meet his brother in Durham before catching the train from there back home, so Tasroth and I went with. Durham is a really pretty town, and Grlump's brother looks like a smaller version of him. We had lunch(-ish) in the cathedral there. I saw the Tomb of the Venerable Bede. Also Grlump's brother said that, according to rumour, there was a mistake in the carvings on one of the pillars. I may have worked it out after a few minutes. Because I'm awesome like that.
All in all, I really liked Durham. It had all the narrow streets and twisty little alleyways and ridonkulously old architecture I've been really wanting to see. I would've liked to wander around the graveyard outside the cathedral, but I think we were running out of time and I wasn't actually sure if it was allowed. Sadly, though, I forgot to take my camera, so I only have a few dodgy pictures I took with my phone. Shame. It is such a pretty town. Oh, also, it snowed briefly.
That night I went along with Thufir to the play's closing night party. It was totally legit that I was there cuz I was super helpful to the production, what with being the one who took the photo of Thufir that was in the programme. Boozamahol was drunk, shenanigans occurred, I was oddly party to some dramas and bitchiness... Good times! Oh, and I had like 3 private shows - every now and then people just started singing around me. It was pretty great. There were some really nice people in that play.
On my last day there, we took it pretty easy. Thufir and I kinda caught the first train in the morning home and slept for a good slab of the day... Then we went for a walk on the beach. There was a ridiculously picturesque lighthouse, and sand that doesn't squeak when you walk on it.
Then Thufir and Tasroth got me to the train station, and I had a pretty uneventful trip home again.
Thufir and Tasroth were really great. Thufir was a bit... mm... distant, but it seems he just gets pretty focused when he's performing. Tasroth can talk like a... like a thing that talks a lot, and was really good about showing me around and entertaining me and stuff. Their parents spoiled me, too. I generally had a really good time there. And I'm really, really glad Grlump could come too, he was fun.
Hm... What have I forgotten?
My photos can be seen here. Thufir has pictures too, go bug him.
Entry 10: You Can Always Depend On The Kindness of Strangers
SpoilerWell. It's been a while, and very back-heavy, excitement wise.
The first week and a half after getting back from Newcastle were pretty uneventful. I walked to the Kelburn Castle one day. I was expecting to see the castle, walk around a garden, see an information centre or somesuch... Instead I found a full-blown theme park with a maze and stuff. I wanna go back there with a kid, or at least a nice immature friend... Felt a little silly walking around all on my own. It's very pretty, but I didn't get to the maze
All the photos I took there are here.
Another day, I went for a walk up the hills with Sinderman. I wanted to walk along a road I saw walking back from the castle, but we discovered that it's private property
Unfortunately I was wearing my broken shoes (it was either them or the blister-causing shoes or the boots with no grip), and my feet ended up totally satched. Didn't help when I went ankle-deep into mud - Sinderman hardly laughed at all, very considerate.
We came out at the same place I did last time, so I was able to show him the "thing" I found. Apparently it used to have a pavilion of some sort on it, but he couldn't say when it was taken away nor how old it was.
Photos from that walk, and of Largs in general, are here.
After that, I spent a week frantically looking for a job (this is on-going). My application for the Jobseeker's Allowance was rejected on the grounds that I haven't been in the UK for 3 months yet, so my wriggle-room evaporated. Many job applications were sent out. Very, very many. And calls were made. Oh so many. I got a couple of call backs, but (at that point) nothing promising.
Somewhere in there, a great deal of alcomohol was consumed. I blame Sinderman. Both times.
Oh! Also! Somewhere in there, I hung out with Dvil in Glasgow. We had a full Scottish breakfast, looked at a lot of fancy buildings, had a look at the Gallery of Modern Art, and explored the Necropolis. Glasgow has a Necropolis, and it is sooooooo cool. Makes me a little sad to see tombstones lying on the ground and stuff, but the place is gorgeous and full of big impressive monuments.
And another day, Hazyshade turned up in Glasgow as well, and I hung out with him too. I'm not sure what we did. Seemed to just wander from one meal or beverage to the next... Hazyshade, what'd we actually do?
Then it was mini meet-up time! Thanks to an anonymous benefactor, I was able to get down to Oxford a day earlier than I thought I'd be. Thufir, Tasroth, Archonic_Energy, The Succubus, Mercenary Pen and Lesser Minion came (and went) at different times, and most of us slept on CurlyKitGirl's floor (I hope I didn't miss anyone). The... weekish was dominated by walking back and forth between the train or bus station and Curly's, and looking at really old stuff - particularly buildings.
I really like Oxford. It's a beautiful place, chock-full of incredible architecture and students and hipsters. So much stuff older than my country. I'd quite like to live there. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to give out the resumes I printed off (except one), but unless I get one of these jobs (more on that later) I think I'll just post them down to a bunch of places.
Back to people. We played a lot of games, is a big part of what we did. I even managed to convince The Succubus to buy a set of Killer Bunnies (it's at Curly's, by the way. She'll get it to you - or, if I get a job, maybe I'll buy it off you). It appeared to have been a hit. Flux and Nuclear War were also involved. IIRC, I won 2 of the latter :3 (I may not RC...). A whole series of new Sherlock Holmes was watched, as was a plot arc of old Doctor Who. They (well, some of them) also got to see the wonder that is the Footrot Flats movie and The Castle. And Poida Poida.
It was really good meeting Lesser_Minion (even if I didn't realise that was who he was for ages...) and Mercenary Pen (even if we were late to pick you up and took ages to recognise each other). It was great seeing Archonic_Energy and The Succubus again. And I have to say, I was not expecting that I'd end up spending so much of my time in the UK hanging out with Tasroth and Thufir... Not that I'm complaining, of course
The rest of my mini-meet photos are here. Again, Thufir has more, but him about it.
So, the original plan was that various people would leave at various times, Thufir'd go back to Newcastle sometime Fridayish, and I'd meander my way back northwards at a leisurely place. Two things put the bullet in that plan: first, Curly's plans changed, resulting in her going home on Wednesday instead of Saturday. Second, I got two job interviews!
The first interview was over the phone on Wednesday afternoon. It was for a job as a Library and Learning Centre Assistant, in a Microsoft building in Reading. Most of the interview happened, as I said, over the phone, but then they said they'd like me to go there in person sometime soon, and I suggested I duck over there then. That resulted in a quick shower, panicked packing, a missed train, and turning up 40 minutes after I said I would. They were very understanding, though.
The job itself would be mostly pretty standard library stuff... in a library mostly containing programming, IT and business related stuff, and kites. Shelving, lending, returning, that sort of thing. The tricky bits would be that kinda the point of the job is that I'd be there all on my own - my supervisor'd be elsewhere doing other things, or maybe even on holidays, and I'd have to cope with everything and anything myself - and tracking down very specific information on subjects I most likely know exactly nothing about, and also making recommendations of materials on same topics. The latter's not likely to be a problem - my prospective boss said he doesn't really know all that much of the technical stuff himself. The first part, I think it'd be a good challenge. The library itself is a little cube of chaos in a massive, shiny corporate monument. That has a kite-flying club. About 22,000gbp/year (I don't quite know what that means, but it's info).
I'm really not sure how I went in that interview(s). I think the two interviewers liked me well enough, but I don't know whether I sold my competency sufficiently. A few of the questions I think I sort of over-answered. So, for example, when asked "what do you do if someone asks you to find information on something, and you have no idea what that thing even is?", I said "well to start with, I'd just ask them to explain it to me. After that, I would do some research into the topic - honestly, Wikipedia can be a useful place to start, to get a general overview, and there's Google, and..." and then I sort of petered out. The interviewer then told me that just the asking bit will usually do the trick, and people tend to forget that bit. In any case, I should know tomorrow whether I got the job or not.
The second job interview... Well, that involved going back to Oxford, waiting around for a few hours (having dinner at Giraffe and leaving a resume there), hopping on a bus up north with a heart-stopping pause at Milton Keynes where I thought I might not be able to get onto the next bus, sitting on it for hours 'til I finally got to Abington in the wee hours of the morning where a very kind lady drove me to my hotel. There I collapsed into bed for 2 hours then made myself get up, have a shower and catch the bus to Biggar for my other interview.
That one was pretty straightforward. The job is a part-time library assistant job at the public library (which is attached to the high school library). It's all stuff I've done for the last 9 years, and I had a good answer for every question (my iffiest was "give an example of teamwork", where I used my last library's staff working together to get the hang of the new computer system). On the other hand, I know there was a whole lot of competition for that job. That one I won't find out about 'til at least the middle of next week.
These job interviews are a big deal. I'm down to my last few hundred dollars. If I don't get a job very soon, I may well be on my way back to Australia before this time next month. That would make me sad - I really want a spring birthday for once
I should put what I said in the Kindness thread here, too:
I've had soooooo many small kindnesses the last couple of days. Just a whole lot of little things. For example:
- I asked a man whether I was at the right bus stop for the train station. Not only did he confirm that and point out the station for me, he carried my heaviest bag there for me.
- A (rather odd) man working at a bus station helped convince the driver of a fully booked bus to let me on, and...
-...a bus driver let me on his fully booked bus (and made sure he gave a shout when we got to my destination).
- A guy at the service station the bus stopped at tried to call me a taxi, and when he was told they didn't have any 'til after 9am, found someone to drive me to my hotel.
- Someone drove me to my hotel from the service station.
- The hotel had my room all ready when I turned up at 7am, even though check-in is meant to be at 1pm. They also have been helping me work out my travel arrangements.
- The bartender/chef gave me a free drink - I was the only one there, so he "bought a round for the room".
I told the hotel manager about some of these things, and he said "you've had some bad luck!" I disagreed
And so. Here I am in a hotel room with dodgy internet. Tomorrow morning I get the train down to Leeds (after a short jaunt into Glasgow, 2 hours away from Largs... Geeze) to hang out with Guy and Grlump and stuff. Or that's the plan...
Oh yeah, somewhere in there I made Ku and myself a haggis. I like the taste and the texture, but I think I can only really eat it with something.
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2011-12-29, 06:55 AM (ISO 8601)Colossus in the Playground
- Join Date
- Jun 2006
- Location
- Dinosaur Museum aw yisss.
- Gender
Re: Serpentine's Travel Diary Thingo-Whatsit
Last edited by Serpentine; 2012-11-01 at 09:38 AM.
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