Todays the day when I face a new claims advisor. His name is on the confirmation letter but we've not had dealings before, so I haven't a clue what sort of person he is. Could he be worse than Bovine Betty? Well, actually, yes, he could be. We shall see.
The problem with handovers like this this is that my jobsearch agreement gets changed. The 'agreement' is an informal contract. It sets out what I have to do as a minimum each week to earn my benefits. I always try to exceed those requiremen
They say the weather is soon to change. The map on television shows a massive arc of light blue jerking across the Atlantic toward that tiny spot on the map where I live. As an indigineous englishman this can only mean one thing. Prepare to be dampened. That said, we brits tend to ignore such baleful warnings. How can it possibly rain? Look out the window - What a glorious day!
Clearly then the english have a memory span of no more than a few days. Anything longer than that is a little hazy
There was a time when I used to enjoy good food. Okay, I'm not exactly a gourmet critic, but even in a modest supermarket it's possible to find something genuinely tasty these days. These days? That is the issue isn't it? I've been unemployed for two years, energy bills have doubled, my income hasn't, and the government want to cut the benefits we get paid. I can't afford to be too fussy or ambitious about what I eat any more, so inevitably the Pot Noodle crops up in the menu sometimes.
Ha
Funny how little things can seem so important. There is of course that quaint Chaos Theory that suggests a butterfly in motion could upset a balance that leads to a storm elsewhere. At first glance, it seems a ridiculous notion, because the laws of physics clearly indicate that a butterfly would have a hard time creating a massive cyclonic movement of air that flattens most of the Eastern US seaboard. But then again, little things matter.
There was that time I thought I was losing fuel in fl
Given my prediliction for using computers I can hardly claim to be a technophobe, but I must confess when it comes to mobile phones I'm almost a luddite. I hate the things. Horrible little contrivances designed to frustrate the owner and annoy everybody else in the vicinity.
Buying them is a little problematic for me too. High street vendors are very keen to fit you into a stereotype, which annoys me greatly, because I just don't want a phone for the reasons they're trying to sell them. Wha
Yesterday I looked out the back window to view the monochrome vista of wintery Swindon. It was all pretty quiet. The garage mechanics had gone home, the yard was silent, and vehicles weren't moving on the streets about. Oho! There he is... Mr Fox, a fine russet furred specimen emerging from under the tall white fence that guards the old college site, where I imagine the Mr Fox has set up home.
He trotted up the slope without a care in the world, only breaking into a run to cross the road. Cu
Well would you believe it? Stephen Hawking, one of the worlds most foremost scientists, has announced that aliens almost certainly exist and that we shouldn't meet them because they'll be horrible to us and nick all our resources. Joking aside, I agree the risks of cultural shock are very real and as I've written a couple of times in the past, contact with more powerful and sophisticated civilisations isn't such a good thing. I also note that it's taken until now to for Mr Hawking to reach that
Right then. Another day, andother blog entry. A quick browse of the internet news site reveals the usual outbursts of optimism from politicians and malicious violence from maladjusted mental cases. You know, all these near-fraudulent promises and murders make you feel a bit tired of the world. How could you possibly tire of day after day of sunshine, put-downs by pompous claims advisors, and the endless red tape of DIY benefits processing?
I think you need a certain level of detachment. As h
Sunday lunchtime - my last chance to fire off that last extra job application before I get my nose rubbed in it first thing monday morning at the Job Centre. I've already run into file version snags but with my usual ingenuity and cursing I got around that obstacle. Yours faithfully... Press send.... There it goes, never to be seen again. Welcome to my life.
As it happens today isn't a spectacularly good day. The sky is a featureless dark grey, the rain intermittent if not quite heavy. There
It's no good. I'm going to have to wash myself. I cannot tell you how much I'm dreading this experience. Please don't misunderstand. I have absolutely no desire to go about smelling of body odour whatsoever, but without hot water, all I have is a bucket of cold water in the bath which I very cleverly allowed to stand for a few hours in order for it to achieve room temperature.
When I was young, I remember the fun I had washing mysef in such a manner during my camping expeditions. With all of
It's been quite an astonishing season for nutcases with shotguns in Britain. Sadly there's been all too many victims. Earlier this summer there was that taxi driver in Cumbria who went on a rampage, then Raoul Moat went on the run after threatening and attacking the police in Northumbria. In both cases the perpetrator shot himself. The taxi driver did so alone, Raoul Moat after a six-hour police attempt to persuade him to surrender.
It always seems to end that way with random killers. I noti
It's saturday morning. I write that just in case anyone reading this blog was unaware of that fact. No, let's be honest, I'm writing that because nothing is happening in Swindon right now. Some of you might argue that's always the case. Shame on you! We have a Pride of Swindon celebration coming up over the next few weeks. Even the park around the corner from me has staged a conga dance. Oh what fun they must have had. Rarely has Swindon been so ready to let its hair down and party on dude. Most
With hundreds of thousands of years experience to fall back on, you would think that human beings would have learned by now. If you live near a river, you risk a flood. The problem of course is that river valleys and flood plains are usually the productive land going, so we take the risk, and in the years we don't get a problem, we soon forget about the risk.
Nonetheless, the recent floods in China and Pakistan must be tough to deal with. I can count myself as lucky in that respect. Floods i
Previously I've mentioned our resident dragon. His party trick of issuing dark smoke from his lungs has got us all curious and earned him the nickname Mistymouth. Today I spotted him on the search for precious stones and knights in armour amongst our boxes, and I decided to confront the creature and demand to know how he breathed fire. I now have the answer, but let's make a quiz of it.
How did Mistymouth breath smoke?
a - A quick, furtive, illegal, and highly dangerous lit cigarette?
It's a properly celtic morning today. Cold, certainly, that sort of insidious damp chill you can never feel warm in whatever you do. I look out the window at the pale blue sky, static undulations of blue-grey alto-cumulus tinged with gold, and that grey claggy horizon with a distant mountain range of cumulus far off in the west.
It's also a very quiet day. Sundays are sometimes like that, and with these dull grey mornings you usually get a very subdued response from people. One old chap said
After the ribald and violent cacophany of the saturday night, last night was as quiet as the grave. Taking advantage of this unusual stillness I gave in to curiosity and sat down to watch the British Film Awards.
Award ceremonies aren't the sort of thing I usually watch. After the first few winners approach the microphone and say "Uuuh....", you kind of lose interest. Which is interesting in itself. I noticed that my attention varied in proportion to the awardee's ability and confidenc
As so often happens, a young asian lad sat at the next library computer began chattering on his mobile phone in a montone barrage of meaningless syllables. He just didn't draw breath. He didn't notice my cold disapproving stare. Coughs did not attract his attention. So eventually a 'Hey!' roused him from his hypnotic mantra. He nodded, and after another minute or so of constant chat, finally hung up the call. At last!
He came back five minutes later and started his phone call all over again.
I got up late this morning. That headline grabbing piece of news might not be suprising for those who believe that the unemployed are a bunch of lazy dole cheats who couldn't do a days work if you put a gun to their heads, and in most cases, you'd be right. After attending that back-to-work scheme earlier this year even I was stunned by the general apathy and resistance to earning a living. In my case however, it was a late night and a neighbour who decided to play his radio in the small hours.
Oh hello, what's this? A new television channel? That heralds another quest to reprogram my litle black box and reveal the latest source of boredom dellivered in high definition digital bliss. We often say how odd it is that with hundreds of new channels to watch, there's hundreds less to be interested in.
As to what channel is now included in my daily browsing session, I can't say, because I haven't found it yet. I did stumble on that dating channel again. Shall I? Shan't I? Oh go on then.
How much do you take for granted? It's an interesting question. We all bcome comfortable with our daily routines certainly, but the extent to which we assume we understand our world is astonishing. Let me explain.
Fifty years ago a British astronomer said that spaceflight was impossible. A hundred years before that, powered flight was impossible, or that travelling more than thirty miles an hour would kill you. A few centuries earlier, we all knew the Earth was the centre of the universe and
Yesterday I saw a man with wings. Now that might inspire all sorts of derisive comments but this wasn't an angel sighting (my mother will so disappointed), but a gentleman heading toward the local model store with the wings from a radio control P51 Mustang. A big one too. Six feet across although if any criticism were deserved, U.S. P51's in D-Day colours were never painted an overall sky blue. I also suspect, due to the lack of all the other bits like engine, fuselage, cockpit, etc, that we're
Autumn is making itself felt. Steady streams of yellow and brown leaves are wafting along in the breeze, and it's been threatening to rain all day. You can feel a sort of heavy dampness, an occaisional raindrop, and the trees obey the stimulus in time-honoured fashion.
As autumns go, this one is proving to be a bit more colourful that ususal. Don't know why, maybe it's all that fresh CO2 we humans have been making that has invigorated the trees with autumnal splendour?
Drive a car today.
In the last year or so I've been making half hearted efforts to maintain my physical fitness. The ennui of unemployment and its incessant requirement to stay active in the jobsearch has left me, ironically, with less time to devote to physical exercise. Slowly but surely I've become aware that hiking has become tougher on my reserves of energy, and that my rebellious waistline is advancing it's remorseless progress ahead of me.
Walking through town the other day I passed a shop dealing with
For those unaware of the panic in Britain, we've been increasingly concerned about gas and road salt. With only six days of gas supply left, Frozen Britain came perilously close to actually happening. Except of course the government have denied a problem exists. That's original.
Road salt though is also getting scarce, so surfaces have been prioritised with regard to need. Many roads and pavements no longer qualify, and everything gets 25% less scattered on top. In order to meet this shortag
Monday mornings always have one thing in common. You know exactly what is going to happen. The alarm goes off, you get out of bed, get washed, fed, watered, and straight to work like some sort of condemned zombie. But not this monday. Today has an air of uncertainty brought about by the forthcoming end of our work placement. This is officially my last week at the department store. That means a return to unemployed status and all the red tape and bureaucracy that goes with it.
KS has already
