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Feb. 8th, 2012 08:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alicia_hI started Virginia Woolf's selected diaries at the pub last night. It was a nice way to capture a little quiet after spending the first part of the day at my job skills course and a good chunk of the afternoon at the charity shop. After leaving the shop I went with Julie, the lady who volunteers at the shop most days, to get dinner at the fish and chip shop. This was my third week volunteering there, just doing one afternoon a week because the job centre are funny about you volunteering unless they've forced you into it.
Every week so far I've been out for dinner with Julie after we leave the shop. I like the routine and not having to eat on my own on Tuesdays. I think Julie probably feels the same. She's told me that she's had a lot of problems with her health and that her carer who comes once a week to help her with her shopping will only be coming once a fortnight now because of the recent Government cuts to healthcare. I don't know her very well but I do get the sense that Julie's health has left her isolated and that she probably doesn't have many friends that she sees outside the shop.
Talking to her does make me realise how lucky I am that I do have people around me who care about me and I've been forgetting that during my worst times. I mustn't let my self ever get to the point where I just completely hide away. I suspect I was heading that way for a good long while but now it seems I'm finding ways to turn things around. I have routines that I'm building, such as my volunteering and going out to dinner on a Tuesday with Julie, I have other routines that I've had around for a while, ie my roleplaying group on a Tuesday night. Yes, I know Tuesday is sounding very busy and nothing much else the rest of the week bar signing on every other Friday. You see, what I want is to have a routine. I'd like to have people that I see and interact with every day. I want to be doing things, getting out there and staying out there, while still having my little world in here, wherever here is, be it head, heart, a digital space or the Aladdin's cave of distractions that is whichever bedroom I happen to inhabit for an amount of time. I can still enjoy the things I enjoy distracting myself with, but surely it has to be in moderation so that I can actually enjoy them rather than feeling I have too much time to do anything.
While job searching on the computer's down at the centre where they run my course, I came across what may well be my dream job. It's as a library assistant at a local 16-19 college. I'm gearing my efforts and the new things we learn each day to scribble down ideas that will help for my application for this job in particular, but what I come up with will surely give me the bones and, gradually as I refine my thoughts, the meat of interview answers. It's also set me onto the sought of jobs I can look for that really do engage me. I'd love to see my experience and encouragement being of help to people not all that younger that me who may not be sure where to take their studies, so I think the requirement of being able to empathise with 16-19 students is very much a given. And I always said I would be a librarian... but only on the when I wasn't busy being an astronaut, archaeologist or famous writer. There's always the evenings and summertime for pursuing my other careers and on the days I'm not digging up and dusting off evidence of ancient civilisations on Mars and Titan I could start flitting between folk festivals as a volunteer!
Every week so far I've been out for dinner with Julie after we leave the shop. I like the routine and not having to eat on my own on Tuesdays. I think Julie probably feels the same. She's told me that she's had a lot of problems with her health and that her carer who comes once a week to help her with her shopping will only be coming once a fortnight now because of the recent Government cuts to healthcare. I don't know her very well but I do get the sense that Julie's health has left her isolated and that she probably doesn't have many friends that she sees outside the shop.
Talking to her does make me realise how lucky I am that I do have people around me who care about me and I've been forgetting that during my worst times. I mustn't let my self ever get to the point where I just completely hide away. I suspect I was heading that way for a good long while but now it seems I'm finding ways to turn things around. I have routines that I'm building, such as my volunteering and going out to dinner on a Tuesday with Julie, I have other routines that I've had around for a while, ie my roleplaying group on a Tuesday night. Yes, I know Tuesday is sounding very busy and nothing much else the rest of the week bar signing on every other Friday. You see, what I want is to have a routine. I'd like to have people that I see and interact with every day. I want to be doing things, getting out there and staying out there, while still having my little world in here, wherever here is, be it head, heart, a digital space or the Aladdin's cave of distractions that is whichever bedroom I happen to inhabit for an amount of time. I can still enjoy the things I enjoy distracting myself with, but surely it has to be in moderation so that I can actually enjoy them rather than feeling I have too much time to do anything.
While job searching on the computer's down at the centre where they run my course, I came across what may well be my dream job. It's as a library assistant at a local 16-19 college. I'm gearing my efforts and the new things we learn each day to scribble down ideas that will help for my application for this job in particular, but what I come up with will surely give me the bones and, gradually as I refine my thoughts, the meat of interview answers. It's also set me onto the sought of jobs I can look for that really do engage me. I'd love to see my experience and encouragement being of help to people not all that younger that me who may not be sure where to take their studies, so I think the requirement of being able to empathise with 16-19 students is very much a given. And I always said I would be a librarian... but only on the when I wasn't busy being an astronaut, archaeologist or famous writer. There's always the evenings and summertime for pursuing my other careers and on the days I'm not digging up and dusting off evidence of ancient civilisations on Mars and Titan I could start flitting between folk festivals as a volunteer!
no subject
Date: 2012-02-09 12:34 am (UTC)i've done that job by the way in Leeds and other places - college libraries are fab!
the current schizophrenic attitude to volunteering really annoys me - places that have always taken volunteers (with good reason) are hurt and small companies looking for a FREE WORKFORCE seem to benefit.
but 'nuff moaning.
with your empathy and emotional awareness you might wanna consider work with an advocacy group - that can be very rewarding i found.
anyhow, good luck! good reading, and have a productive day tomoz.
<3
no subject
Date: 2012-02-09 12:39 am (UTC)http://www.nfa.dept.shef.ac.uk/
no subject
Date: 2012-02-09 08:36 pm (UTC)I've been looking at museum jobs as well, none really in the right place if I want to stay in Huddersfield but a great help for looking at skills these places are looking for and to practise filling in application forms. And it might well be worth sending the museums ones after all because I now remember that the Duxford Imperial War Museum job description had an interest in 20th Century conflict as one of it's desirable qualities *pointed cough in the direction of my WWII centric nano novel* and on the website they're selling tickets for an upcoming air show.
Closer inspection of the website has pointed me to a Battle of Britain tour. The sheer amount of disappointment I feel that it's booked up (even though I'd likely be to skint or tight to travel down to Cambridgeshire while still on job seekers) is surely proof enough of my relevant interest. :-)
I'm thinking it'll definitely be worth venturing over to Manchester for a trip round the IWM North for some story inspiration and job research and have a look into how much a trip down south would cost if I got called down for an interview. Perhaps if I dig a little deeper, I'll find jobs going at the Manchester one but, now I know there are planes at the other one, I want to be down there. Why can't I be down there, dammit? *sulks*
Anyway, clearly the job hunt is going a hell of a lot better than I'd realised.
And you are exactly right about the attitude to volunteering. A student could and would willingly take a part time job stacking shelves in Sainsbury's et al to fund nights out. However, the job centre will happily force people to do that while the supermarkets get paid by the government to take people and save whatever wage they would give to someone who applies and interviews for that job.
I'm not entirely sure what the situation of travelling to interviews while I'm on job seekers, but whether they reimburse travel expenses or not, I'd love to see the reaction of whichever sour faced so and so is processing me the week I say I've been down to Cambridgeshire and back. :-D
no subject
Date: 2012-02-09 09:20 pm (UTC)you realise, of course, that i will now be picturing you in full spitfire and re-enactment mode?! go you! and hey, Macca-style wind-cheaters are cool:))
no subject
Date: 2012-02-09 09:40 pm (UTC)...and I've just had exactly the same *want* feeling over a spitfire and flying.
So, there are two future projects post job finding. Clearly, the world needs a clumsy blindy in total control of pretty machines with dangerous spinning bits on them! :-D
no subject
Date: 2012-02-09 09:46 pm (UTC)*BIG GRIN*
you should pin that to your profile right now! :)))
no subject
Date: 2012-02-09 09:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-09 09:17 pm (UTC)