Afternoon all..

Well.. its been ages since my last ‘proper’ update I know.. so..
Let’s address that shall we?!

Ok.. so last time we spoke I’d just got to Gibraltar.

Did I mention all about that?

*goes back and checks previous blogs*

Right.. you get the basic gist of the whole ‘last minute trip’ thing?
Basically – I had an inkling that I might be going but it wasn’t confirmed to me until about 7pm on the Wednesday evening!
So I packed super sharpish and then the following day I (phoned in sick at work – bad man I know) then jumped on a train to Gatwick!
Woo..

I must admit I was chuckling to myself a bit on the flight over – it was just SO random! 24hrs previously if you’d have asked me what will I be doing this time tomorrow.. “Err.. working!” ..would’ve been the response!

Ah well. But yeah – it was a surprise for my Dad. As I mentioned previously – I havent spent Father’s Day with him in about 20yrs.. He left when I was everso young see.. there’s a whole different blog you could dedicate to dealing with that whole thing, so I’m not gonna even try and go into it here.
My Dad left, he now lives in Gibraltar. Thats it. Not gonna bother with the rest.

So yeah – it was cool - as I said - I was going to go and see my Dad – but as ever, whenever I’m over there – I spend all my time with my l’il bro.

He is UBER cool.

(excuse to post another pic? oh go on then)

Yup. That’s my bro.

Anywhoo – yeah – so my weekend was cool. Had some good chats with my Dad. Been needing to see him of late considering the amound of crap I’ve been through and stuff y’know?
But yeah… it was nice to hang out.
I was always sleep so much more there y’know? Just kick back and properly relax.. its cool.

It’s always slightly hard being at my Dad’s. He’s got a few issues..
Erm.. long story short: About 10yrs ago or so an Acrow Prop fell about 20ft and embedded itself into his head.. all very nasty. But yeah – no immediate problems – still alive etc – but after a while.. a few memory issues revealed themselves.
Think ’Memento’ but not as intense.
My Dad lost a large chunk of his long term memory but also his short term memory took a beating too.. so you can talk to him and then mid-sentence he’ll just forget what he’s talking about.. which is ok – you can nudge him and he might remember.. but he just forgets stuff.
Anyway – thats hard - on top of that he cant really think straight a lot of the time and gets quite paranoid.. its quite hard to deal with.
I got a bit upset while I was over there.. I’ll tell ya why..

Sometimes its hard. I like going to see my family in Gibraltar y’know but I can’t really deal with being there for a long time.. and on the Saturday it was already beginning to get to me… and then I feel worse because here I am in Gibraltar, seeing my Dad and my Brother and I want to come home! I mean how selfish do I want to be?!

So yeah - I got a bit upset.. so I had a moan to my mate Ash who, in all fairness to him, gave me a right kick up the backside. I stopped moping about and just enjoyed being there y’know?

My Dad’s cool. I do like talking to him and my brother’s wicked too.
In fact – here they are!
)

So yeah -
I had a good time in Gib. It had its ups and downs but there were more ups. Definitely.
)

So yeah – got home from Gibraltar last Sunday evening..

Monday: Went to work – all good. Monday night my friend Susan came over and cooked dinner for us which was nice – havent seen her in a while and we had a good natter..
(Thai Red Curry – with that thai-paste I bought that day in Tescos ZenJen!)
..AND we finished off two bottles of wine – whoopsee! Hahaha..
Anyway – yeah – that was cool.. walked Susan home and came back and crashed out..

Tuesday: I woke up – felt a bit rough.. decided to blow work out.
Yep. I know – poof. A little bit of wine and I go sick with a hangover..
Well NO – it wasnt like that.. I just fancied chilling out so THERE.
Tuesday night I went to me mate Mickey’s house and watched the England go through to the last 16 of the World Cup by winning their group against Sweden. That was also tres cool.. and yet again.. I drank a bottle of wine.

Wednesday: woke up.. felt a bit rough.. (you can see where this is going already cant you) ..blew work out! Hahah..
Wednesday was a nice sunny day if I recall correctly so I did all my washing that day yeah – good domesticated young lad that I am. )
Cant remember what I did Wednesday night now.. Hmmm.. Ah well.

Thursday: Took the day off AGAIN, (you know I hate my job right?)
Again – cant really remember exactly what I did with my day.. I THINK it involved sunbathing and stuff but anything after that is a bit vague..
Thursday night I had Drama Workshop over in Surbiton. That was cool.
There was LOADS of us – best turnout yet. Had a great laugh and went for a drink afterwards too.. )

Friday: Well. If you’re gonna take Thursday off you may as well take the Friday too! Hehehe.. Friday I got up, chilled out, packed my bags (you’ll see why) and went and met my mate Jobs for lunch at Liverpool Street.

Here we are:

We were a bit hammered at that point.. because..
I say ‘lunch’.. there wasn’t really any eating involved.. just drinking. So yeah.. It was a beautiful afternoon so we spent about four hours drinking wine in the city.. got shedded. Was WELL funny. I was heading down to Essex afterwards to hang out with some of my friends there.. God knows how I made it back!
I know that I decided to try and find Fenchurch St station at some point.. and then the next thing I remember I was on Canvey Island.. so I must’ve made it on my own somehow! Hahaha..
That was cool.. Got back to Canvey, nipped home, dropped my bag off and then rocked on round to my best mate Tony’s.

Me and the Sensei had a nice evenin’ drinkin’ and catchin’ up.. all good.
Although.. I got THAT hammered I ended up crashin’ at Tony’s and I NEVER crash at Tony’s. I always walk home y’know? But yeah.. I was TRASHED. Hahaha.. never mind.

Saturday: I woke up at about 7am ish. Dragged my sorry ass back to me Mum’s. My Mum by the way is currently in Cyprus – so I had the house to myself. Which was coooooool as. My own little pad y’know?
So yeah – Saturday, go home, shower, change, go and see my gay uncle down at the Barber’s.
Don’t Ask.

Then took a walk round town – bumped into my mate Zoe – that was cool. Had a really good chat with her.. she’s an old friend of mine… and if I hadn’t already written an absolute marathon blog post I’d probably go into what we talked about – maybe another day. A few of you already know.. I’ll leave it at that for now..
So yeah – Saturday night went back round Tony’s, got drunk again.. managed to make it home on my own this time though – so I wasnt THAT bad! Hahah..

Sunday: Woke up on the sofa in me Mum’s front room. Mental. Stayed there the whole weekend and not once did I crash on the bed. Numpty.. although.. saying that.. my Mum’s sofa is SO comfy..
I digress…
Sunday – got up, cut the grass (I’m a good boy) and then my mate Laws came over for a moan about all the men in her life – hahah – so that was quite funny. She’s just out of the otherside of a nasty breakup is Laws and we always have a good chat. Sharing advice etc.. y’know.. anyway – Laws left and Bodge turned up.. Me and Bodge grabbed Tony and Big Dave and we went for a kickabout before the footy.. Nice.. s’been YEARS since we did anything like that - had a right laugh.
Went back to mine (well – me Mum’s) afterwards and watched the England make it through to the World Cup Quarter Finals by beating Ecuador 1-0 thanks to a sublime David Beckham free kick..
We got Pizza.. . (thats officially the most un-healthiest thing I’ve eaten since arriving home from Thailand) ..and got on the beers (again) and then everyone left so I could pack up and head back to Twickenham.

Slight problem with that.. I’m bat-faced.
..and the last thing I wanna do is spend 2hrs on Sunday trains dragging myself back to Twickers. So I slacked it off… with the intention to get up early this morning and then go to work from Canvey..
Obviously that didn’t happen..
Whoops.

I am back in Twickenham NOW.
But I’m not at work.. I WILL go back tomorrow.. I WILL!

ehe..

Anyway – I’ve had a great weekend.
I’ve hardly spent any money ( i dont have any! )
But…
In general…
Life is pretty good…

I’ve got a new job starting soon…

I’ve got some great friends… (you know who you are)
..and some crackin’ mates. (so do you)
So yes..

Ladies & Gentlemen – I am a very lucky man and I am enjoying my life.
Thank you.

Next time I won’t leave it so long – I promise.

Right folks,

Apologies for the ‘half-blog’ the other day – it was just too sunny to stay in and type this stuff up! As it stands – its 815am here and the Sun is up but I dont think its warm enough to warrant going outside just yet.. watch this space! Hehehe…

Where was I?

*opens new window – checks previous blog*

Ahhh…

Right then – I emailed Kevin back telling him how stoked I was that they were still interested etc.. and I left it at that.

That afternoon I get an email from their CEO asking me to pop over sometime next week… so we arranged a time and a date and last Wednesday I rocked over to Refresh Mobile in Fulham and went and saw them..

Now – bear in mind that my vocation at the moment is Accountant. So I bowl in there thinking I’m being interviewed for an Accounts-based position..

But no – turns out they want me to not do any accounts stuff at all!

They want me to work with them on improving their software and to help in making it a better experience for the user!

The two people that interviewed me didnt seem interested in my CV at all.. in fact one of the quotes from the interview was-

“James, if we’d have got your CV from some head hunting job agency.. you wouldn’t have made it through the door – its only because you’ve met Kevin and Scott that you’re here – they speak highly of you..”

Eventually Scott comes down and we have a bit of a chat, discuss the Mobizines in more detail.. he gives me a pop quiz on the software.. which, to be honest – I dont really know how well I did on!

But at the end of the interview said:

“Right then, I should make you an offer then really.. ”

YEAH!

“I’ll email you in the morning..”

COOL!

I give Scott my personal email address (so far all correspondence has been using my my work email – which is a bit …unethical i guess.. and probably against company policy too I’d imagine – know The Mail) and then I toddle off home.. after a near two hour interview!

Thursday arrives..

All day long i’m constantly checking my email.. lunchtime passes.. still nothing.. panic.. setting.. in.. it gets to 1630 and I decide to email Kevin – “MATE! No news! Should I be concerned?! ..or just more patient?!”

No reply!

AAAAAAAARGH!

Following morning I get an email from Scott to my work address.. turns out he mislaid my personal email address.. (THANK YOU LORD!) ..I send it over and within minutes I have a job offer and contract in my inbox ready for my perusal.. I browse over it.. decide that this is probably the best thing thats happened to my carreer in YEARS and email Scott back…

“I accept!”

I printed the contract off, signed it, sent it back… and by 11am I’d resigned from the Daily Mail!

Wooooooooooooooooooo!

Do you have ANY IDEA how nice that feels?!

To RESIGN?!

Well.. thing is.. its nicer for me I guess – I was made redundant from my last two positions and I’d kinda forgotten what it feels like to LEAVE a job instead of my job leaving me.. y’know?!

I’m so excited – this job’s gonna be great..

But now.. we have a problem. (Yup. Its never simple is it?!)

Right – so – I’l try and make this as simple as possible.

The Mail pays on the 15th of every month – two weeks in advance and two weeks in arrears. So you get paid for the two weeks you’ve just worked and then the two weeks you’re about to work… With me so far?

Cool – anyway – because of my trip to Thailand I’ve used up all my holiday at the mail and it turns out I owe them seven days.. so.. they’re gonna deduct that amount from my salary.. not NEXT month’s… no no.. THIS month’s. Arse. So in four days I get three week’s money. That’s June.

Then – on July 7th I finish at the Mail.

July 10th I start at Refresh.

July 15th I get paid ONE WEEK’S (!!) money from the Mail.

Now with Refresh things are different – they do it normally – there you get paid at the end of the month for the month you’ve just worked y’dig? So moving on:

On July 30th I get paid THREE WEEK’S money from Refresh..

Then I dont get paid again until the end of August. That pay cheque will be first full pay cheque since May 15th.

Ouch.

Fingers crossed I can survive til then.. I might be eating out of bins and stuff but I guess I’ll survive!

AARGH!

So yeah – thats my news!

Good and (slightly) bad.

Goodbye and So Long to The Daily Mail!

Goodbye and So Long to my Carreer as an Accountant!

Hello Refresh Mobile!

( oh and goodbye to my social life over the summer )

___________________________________________

Ok – thats that sorted – now to bring us bang up to date.

Yesterday was a beautiful day. Hung out with mates most of the day watching various World Cup matches..

GO ON THE ENGLAND!

Ahem…

…had a kickabout.. my mate Rich broke his leg! But he’s alright.. Trooper that he is! Gonna go see him later.. see how he’s getting on..

So yeah.. there we go.

I’m gonna go have a bath now I think…

Chat soon!

J.

EDIT:

Forgot to mention – there’s a fairly large chance that I might be going to see Bon Jovi in Milton Keynes today… Bizarre eh!? Hahaahah..I’ll let you know.

Good morning everybody!

Its 10am and we’re T-Minus Four Hours until England kick-off their opening game of the World Cup against Paraguay.. Rock.

Lookin good – I haven’t spent any time examining the team sheet or panicking over Stevie Gerrard’s Hip/Back problems.. the guy’s younger then me for crying out loud – he’s probably still growing! Give the lad a chance..

Enough World Cup chat the time being.. Lets have an update shall we?!

ALRIGHTY THEN!

So – last time I posted I had just been to an interview at an Agency and I was off to www.refreshmobile.com for an interview the following day…

Well – Refresh Mobile make these things called Mobizines – www.mobizines.com – its a pretty damn cool piece of software for your Mowbli and its dead easy to use and dead cheap and and and.. you get the idea – just click the link and go see what I’m talking about..

I digress..

Three months ago I downloaded the aforementioned program for my Nokia and I couldnt get the bugger to work.. One of the Mobizines they do is BBC Headlines – and that’s the one I wanted – more info HERE – so I mailed them (‘them’ being the useful people at Refresh – NOT the BBC) and told them..

They were really cool and eventually between us we got it working. In the meantime a certain amount rapport built up between me and the guy I was dealing with – and when the phone was all sorted and stuff Kevin at Refresh asked me if I’d like a cheque for £20.. because I’d uncovered a problem with the software etc that no one had found and at the time they had this reward scheme in place that gave ‘prizes’ for any user that did such a thing..

“Hmm” said I. “£20?” ..

“Yes” said Kevin “Or something from this list.. “

Kevin sent me this link which had a list of boys toys and gadgets on it.. which were all pretty cool – my favourite of which was a ‘Fog Gun’. A FOG GUN! BRILLIANT! You hold the trigger down and it makes fog! Hours of fun…. “Tonight Matthew…” (holds trigger down) “…I’m going to be Batman!” Brilliant.. sorry.. got carried away..

So yeah – I nearly opted for the Fog Gun. Kinda glad I didn’t now really!

At the bottom (might’ve been the top – cant remember) of the list was a small line saying “Or come to the office and meet the team! ..and..if we like you.. you might even get a job interview! Refresh Mobile are always looking for new and exciting members of staff… etc etc”

So I emailed Kevin back – “Er.. I think I’d like the job interview and the tour please!”

“Ok mate – sure – send us your CV and we’ll arrange something..”

It was all a bit crazy and I’ll tell you for why!

1) I had NO IDEA what I job I was going to be interviewed for.

2) I had no idea what on Earth they were gonna think of me.. think about this for a second.. I turned down HARD CASH just so I could come down and meet the team and then maybe get an interview.. I thought ‘They must think I’m weird..”

Anyway – went along, met Kevin.. lovely chap.. he gave me the tour of their offices etc.. I met various members of staff….and then he introduced me to this guy called Scott. He’s the CEO of the company and dead nice.. anyway – we had a good talk and we pretty much just geeked each other out for about 45mins or so chattin’ about mobile phones and stuff and it was really, really interesting.. He showed me how the Mobizines worked etc and I told him what I thought and so on.. it was cool.

So then it turned to what I do for a living (at the time I was a Management Accountant for The Daily Mail – Yeah – I know..) and I told him and he was like ..”Ok… ….we’re not looking for any of those at the moment but if anything comes up we’ll be in touch”.

And it pretty much ended there..

So – fast forward to last week – remember my blog and how much I REALLY hated my job? Yeah – I emailed Kevin at Refresh just saying “Hi! How are ya?!” etc etc.. “just a friendly reminder email I suppose reminding him that I was still there etc and still interested….”

I got an email back from Kevin the following day saying:

“Hi James, we’re still interested – more soon..”

…and that’s where I’m leaving it folks..

For now anyway – the day is too beautiful for me to be stuck indoors typing!

Rest of the story to come soon.. PROMISE!

Heheehe..