how do people do it?

well it's the end of the week.

The first week of full-time work I've done for a while, and I honestly have no idea how I ever managed before. I suppose in years gone by I had much less to think about, much less problems floating around in my little brain, but mostly I must have had a lot more energy and drive, because I swear this week has almost killed me. It's not even like I've done a lot of work, most of my time has been spent reading a magazine or two because I have a habit of finishing the tasks too quickly, leaving myself with nothing to do at all. I like being bored you see....it's my favourite of all past-times....hummm....in actual fact I get so excited when a task comes along my way that I just do it...I really ought to drag it out more, particularly when doing a job just mostly waiting for a very unbusy phone to ring, and a few people to come in and collect or drop off things so O can fill in some paperwork and do some filing.

That's the trouble with admin, or admin that I have been involved with. it's not something that's really mindboggling. I like things that require my brain to have a little bit of fun....

Anyway, point of this post is that I am knackered, I have been in bed about 8 every night, and it really has almost killed me. I expect I'm exaggerating a little bit there....but once upon a time I worked 7 days a week, and did a full-time college course too. Crazy stuff.

All I need to do is find a job that really does stretch me, so I have less stuff to moan about! Oh and some money in my back pocket.

the story so far

I left school in 2001, got myself a nice little office junior job in a local solicitors and was relatively happy there....over time more juniors came along, I got promoted, but I neevr really enjoyed the job quite so much. I sat on reception, it took a month or two before I would talk to any clients coming in, and it took nine months, I'm talking long enough to have a baby, for me to pick up the phone. Once I started with both of these there was no stopping me, and thus adminy receptiony people loving Ashley was born....

I changed jobs, and found myself doing admin jobs where I was working full-time hours for part-time work. Some days I literally waited until 4pm to frank the post and put it in a bag. I'd like to say it was a hugly busy switchboard....but it never was...I had a few more jobs like this one....all the while knowing admin wasn't for me, and it wasn't what I wanted.

On day I did a weekend course in Teaching English as a Foreign Language and decided that was what I was going to do....my boss at the time even said I'd make an excellent teacher, because I had a lot of patience and like to be around people, and that was the encouragement that I needed. I then changed jobs and worked for a posh travel company in Newmarket, started doing an "access course" at west Suffolk College, and took on a seocond job to pay off some of my debts.

whilst doing this I then decided I would do six weeks voluntary work in South Africa through i-to-i and somehow managed to fund this, work 7 days a week and do a full-time college course in the evenings....it was crazy, I had no social life but I believed I was working towards my dream, and so I was pretty darn happy.

I got accepted at DMU and on 2nd October 2006 I started....not long after Christmas I realised uni really wasn't for me, and after a few teaching practices teaching wasn't really for me either. I also hated Leicester, hated the student lifestyle and wanted to go back to full-time work. However, after year 1 I stayed at uni, I went back and survived year 2, living in Thetford and travelling back and forth to carry on with my studies. Year 3 came and I got myself a place in halls, but again I spent much more time in Thetford than I ever did in Leicester....and yet I managed to get everything in and on time. All I have to do now is wait for my results.

At the beginning of the year I'd have done anything to get myself a first class degree, as time went on my enthusiasm curbed and I was aiming for a 2:1. And just days before I handed in my dissertation I very nearly failed my last teaching practice and almost gave up on my dissertation too....and I will now happily settle for a 2:2....!!

Trouble being, is that I have finished uni and done a degree in something I don't seem to have that much interest in at all. I taught for most of last summer. I spent 7 weeks with 3 different groups of French children who had come to learn English....but I never felt like I was giving them anything, or that they were learning anything....I don't like that feeling....so I don't want to teach. I can't really thing of anything else in an educational setting other than teaching that really pays....so it's back to the drawing board.

I wanted to get away from uni, in the morning I start work again, and guess what, it's admin. Admin will do for the time being....I know it, it bores me, but at the end of the day it pays....but does it pay to be miserable? I have no idea....maybe it's not as bad as I remember....just maybe....?!

how bizarre

I've possibally had one of the strangest mornings in an age...!!

This morning I decided to call the jobcentreplus people, I'm unsure of my ability to claim jobseekers allowance, but was delighted to be told that now I am actually looking for work I can start claiming. wooop. So I went through this whole long phonecall about who I am, what I do. what had made it more complicated is that I've moved out of my parents and live in a friends house, but I have no contact details for my friend at the moment. I still have no mobile phone, and in the new place I have no landline...but after 40 minutes or so, I had an appointment to go to Thetford jobcentre...TOMORROw.

well, shortly after that call, I had a bizarre call from a recruitment agency I did some work from last year, just wondering if I was still looking for work. I'd only said to my mum, as the calls were all made to/from her's, that I was going to pop into the particular agency that called on Thursday afternoon as I was popping into bury anyway...but they called me, and a company I did some temporary work for last summer want me back for a few weeks. It was just lucky that when they called I was sat at mum and dads using the internet for "job research". That's code for FACEBOOK...

So I called Thetford jobcentre to cancel my jobseekers appointment, and on Monday I am off to work...

I knew finding a job would be easy...

welcome to the real world

It's official, uni is over and done!!

Today I handed in my dissertation with miniutes left to spare after a mamouth 3 day stint. And the feeling once it was in and I could go back home and never think about uni again was so completely immense...so I jumped in the car and drove in absolute bliss.

Here's to finishing uni and starting the rest of my life.....If only I had some champagne.