Sorry It's Been So Long

Hey guys, sorry it's been such a long time since my last post, I've had exams and goodness knows what else.
If anyone out there in Internetland is still reading this, here is a quick rundown of the last few months:

- Exams. I had four, I think. They were so long ago I've forgotten. For these, I had some short questions (what the history students call) "gobbets";  reciting chunks of information on automatic recall, some grammar questions and several essays and overall I was happy with the way they went.
- End of term preparations and celebrations, including the URN Boat Party, as well as various other bits. Possibly my favourite part of the last few months, as this included visits from my Grandad and his friend Jean, and Matt, the aforementioned Boat Party and several meals out and meeting ups with various people.
- Results. Happily, I passed my first year at uni with a good enough average for me not to be disappointed in myself. Thankfully, this means I'll be back in September in fabulous Nottingham!
- New House. We moved into our new student digs for next year at the beginning of July. As expected, some work needs to be done to make it home, but a trip to Lidl went some way to improving things...
- Phatpocket. Once again I return to work under the "watchful" (absent) eye of Scott, and am merrily reunited with my friends and colleagues, including the elusive Dannii, who returns for another summer. And Matt, of course. He's there too.

So my main pondering for this post, given the changes that have occurred since the last one, and the fact that I'm sitting in the departure lounge of Heathrow, is travel. It's strange how we often describe life as a journey, but so many of us spend the majority of it in one place. Whilst it is not the most ecologically friendly thing to do, I fully believe that people become fuller and more well rounded individuals through travelling and experiencing different cultures and societies. It really does change your perspective of things, even if only in a small way.

However, now that I'm going through what I'm sure I will consider one of the greatest transitions periods of my life (when I look back in years to come), I'm beginning to realise what people mean by "the journey of life". You may well spend your time on this planet all in one place, but that doesn't mean you don't travel incredibly far from what you have been.

Especially in a time when, as a young adult (and I don't mean that in the patronising way parents and teachers always use it, I mean it in its most literal sense) things such as bill paying and part-time employment have entered my sphere of consciousness. It's easy to forget that things some people take for granted, such as setting up utilities accounts, travelling by means other than one's own feet or parent taxi, and deciding whether or not our house actually needs a TV licence under the current confusing guidelines, especially if you're old enough to have been doing those things for ten, twenty, or even thirty years. When you step onto that path, it really is a new and confusing world, and probably one of the biggest ways in which we travel as we mature in the "journey" of life.

Thanks for listening to my semi-philosophical, semi-confused-and-talking-to-myself ramble. Hopefully it won't be as long until the next post. I wonder if anyone is still reading this anyway?

My Meandering Brain

OK, this is hardly surprising for regular readers of my blog, but that last post seemed to go off at somewhat of a tangent. The post was meant to be about how everything is slowly sorting itself out in my life, not about how my life is complete now that I have a boyfriend and a job.

I'd like to take this opportunity to say that just because I am now receiving a slightly higher income than 0p per month this does not mean that my life is now perfect. Furthermore, I am not suggesting that I or anyone else needs a job to be happy. Some work can make you happy and part of what makes my job so enjoyable is the people there (hence the huge tangent.) All I meant was that it is one less thing for me to worry about now and therefore one less thing to write about.

Likewise the boyfriend situation. Miss MacNeill and Sophie R,  if you are reading this I am not saying that a significant other is important for making one feel happy, merely that it's one less thing that I can moan about to all and sundry.

My real point was meant to be that things are finally picking up in my life where they have previously been points for me to complain incessantly about and that this might, in the long run, hail the end of my wonderful (under appreciated) blog. Even my weird and wonderful Uni crisis has sorted itself out; I am now going to study German at Nottingham, not what I originally planned, but I think it's the right choice. As My Grandad and Dad often say, everything happens for a reason.

Anyway, as you can see, this post is more accurate and on topic than my last post. Why does this always happen? And so, dear readers, I must be going now as the Land of Nod awaits. Much love and that x

My New Job

PhatPocket. It's such an American name. Which makes sense, because the manager (and owner, as far as I can tell) is American. So, as many of you know, I got a new job recently. Therefore I have been pondering it.

My job itself is incredibly weird. I'm a PreScanner, which means that I arrive at 9.30 and spend five minutes or so piling books onto my desk in about six stacks, each about two foot high, then I scan them all into a computer programme or, if they're old enough not to have barcodes, I enter the ISBN number by hand. The programme tells me whether the book should be accepted by the company to sell on or not. If the book is accepted then I have to judge its condition (good, very good, acceptable, library or non-library etc.) and put it on the relevant shelf. If the books are rejected by the system, then they're thrown in the recycling (literally thrown, it's great fun) or put in a box for the School Aid charity in Africa.

Alternatively, it seems to be an actual company policy that books which would otherwise be thrown away can be taken home if we want them for ourselves.

As a first job, this is both excellent and crazy at the same time; unlike many employers, PhatPocket don't take advantage of the fact that under 22 year olds aren't required to receive minimum wage and pay everyone equally. What's more, the job is the perfect balance of sitting at a desk all day and strenuous physical exercise; every so often a new crate of books is required, or the bins have to be moved, or we have to get a new trolley to fill with books, all of which are quite laborious jobs.

Other hilarious aspects of the job include some of the stories told by my co-workers (most of which involve drinking), and the day we had a huge amount of frogs in the warehouse. Being on a farm, there is a high chance of escaping wildlife; a lamb apparently got into the warehouse in the spring. A few weeks ago I arrived at work to be told that there were baby frogs everywhere and that I should be incredibly careful where I trod. This then led to a mass exodus of tiny frogs from the warehouse to the pond and a lot of watching where I walked for the rest of the day.

Frogs apart, Margaret is the funniest thing to have happened in my time working at PhatPocket.  When conditioning the books we often find interesting and questionable things being used as bookmarks. The most notable of these was a plain brown envelope simply addressed to "Margaret". Although not that outstanding in itself, this envelope and what it has grown to represent have changed our lives forever. Margaret has become a cult figure at work; one of the men has considered leaving his wife for her and everyone has been accused of secretly being Margaret as a cunning ruse. On Friday we found an actual address for (probably a different) Margaret and we are planning to send her a letter in the near future.

There is so much more to tell you, including the 11:00 read, the collection of "That's not my..." books and how scary Mark is, but this post is becoming unbearably long and there'll be time for it all in another update on my life. Suffice to say that I am (somehow) enjoying my new, quite boring, job and I look forward to the next several weeks of my working life. Primarily because the other benefits of this new job are excellent, but more about them another time... ;)