Good Evening.
Good day today - Long ride (3 hours), gave blood, went to library. Still not got all the details I need so I can't get posting but I should be able to get that sorted tomorrow night.

Unfortunately, fate got in the way of me doing things over the weekend and I would like to explain why in one of my rare rants; by their nature, they are entirely my opinion and may or may not have a basis in reality...

Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. I think they are short on cash. They have attempted to close perfectly good schools. They seem to let historic buildings fall into disrepair so that they can demolish them and sell off the land. I'm not sure how linked the hospitals are, probably not at all, but while I'm here I want to complain at the selling off of perfectly good hospitals and their land in favour of centralising all the services at a site riddled with congestion.

So I think we've established that our borough is a little short on cash. Indeed, I believe our firestations are being renovated using voluntary donations of cash. So you wouldn't be that suprised to hear that the roads in this area are in a poor state of repair. I can't say they're terrible - there is an effort at providing roads. But they are pot-holed and/or subsided wherever you go.

Some examples: Stourbridge ring road has a part of it that, one day, fell out. Council patched it up. Little while later, it falls out again. We're talking about a collapse in the road surface measuring around 1 metre square.

High Street in Wordsley. This is where I had my "incident". I drove down here at night, in the rain. I saw a black patch on the road. Now in this area, patches on the road are no odd thing - you should see the road to my parents house; it's like a patchwork quilt. The thought process as I approached this dark ptch were as follows:

Look at that black thing, I wonder what it is?

Looks very big, doesn't look like a pot hole, I think it's just a patch (NB -
this assumption was my mistake)

Ye Gods it IS a pot hole and it's bloody deep and I've just gone into
it, the wheel's gonna blow, better hold the steering wheel tightly.

Ow, Ow, Ow - I'm still running, steering wheel feels normal, no cars coming
at me in a dangerous way, no pedestrians to dodge, everything does seem okay
doesn't it? Yes it does, okay, I'm gonna try and make it home. Resume normal driving with added caution.
(NB - this was another mistake, I should have checked externally).

The wheel rim was slightly buckled but tyre seemed to be holding its own. So next day I do my only vital journey. Everything goes fine until guess what - coming back into Dudley Borough, I hit another pot hole. This one was on a country lane, street light was broken and hole was hidden by a bend and foliage. So hit the hole I did. Only a small one, but enough to knock the air out of my tyre. Tyre gradually deflated on way back, so my speed decreased as I made it home.

That concludes my rant regarding Dudley Council, I will now finish the story.

So today I attempted to attach my spare tyre. Needed to de-rust the restraining nut for the spare wheel. Then the wheel nuts wouldn't come off - I was pushing hard, but the tools were bending under the pressure so I daren't try harder. I later found a stronger set of tools and managed it.

New tyre is quite possibly the same age as the car. So exterior wall is weak. But it should get me to a tyre place. That will have to wait until Wednesday. What with research and riding, my day will be busy enough.

Two Hours.
That's the time it tok. So average is looking good. Kept up yesterdays pace over longer distance.

Nothing else to report. Am in the process of applying to Telford companies.

Another Successful Morning.
Yes, after another bike ride I feel good. Only 6 miles this time - and a quarter of the time I spent out on my last ride. There were a few reasons for this:

Firstly it is snowing, and though I was in waterproofs, my face was starting to sting. So I didn't go far from home.

Secondly I was still tired after the mammoth ride on Monday, so I didn't want to go so far this time.

That said, and here's the third reason, I did push myself harder over the ride - using harder gears than I could have, taking on more hills in quicker succession.

So I think that classes as a good workout. If my shoulders stop aching then I might even have a go at some upper body work.

I really do feel better for the little bits of excersise I've been doing. Okay, so that's to be expected, but the difference is bigger than I expected. I need some dinner now, another reason I came back early (but then again I could have packed a lunch).

In other news, I have a new CV and covering letter - very kindly looked over by a woman who has to deal with CV applications in her line of work. So hopefully I'll get better results when I apply directly to some companies in Telford. Yes, that's right, I actually managed to find some company names. Woo...Hoo!

Take care all.

A Week In The Life Of...
ME.

Well, lets start on Sunday shall we - as good a start as any.

So I'm eating my tea and I decide to move to plan C as regards job hunting. There are four plans. So this is my penultimate resort, so to speak.

Plan C, however, requires preparation. Excersise to be exact - I need to get fit. So I think "let's start swimming".

So Monday morning I go out to the local swimming baths (I tried ringing ahead, but they refused to answer their phones - and it was the right numbers because I asked when I got there). Their public opening times were pathetic. So I went to our next nearest baths. Their public opening times were even worse (45 minutes a day to be exact). I now had a choice... keep searching or bugger it for the day and go home (it was now 3pm and I hadn't eaten yet). I chose to go home.

Feeling dissapoined, I was thinking about what I could do that day that would be proactive. Then I remembered that I'd seen a blood donation centre on my travels; so off I went to give blood. (after eating of course).

Bear in mind that I had a stomach bug just 9 days ago. This was why I couldn't give blood - I needed to wait 14 days, so I'm going back next Monday.

So I left the building feeling quite dejected. So I thought "lets get my hair cut"; I was determined to do something useful that day. £8.70 later, my hair was tidy and looking a lot better. I would have cut my own hair but I wanted to have the back of my head done properly. There aren't that many places round here to get a haircut, so I put up with the price. They do a good job, so I get some value for money.

Then let me bring you to today. Up I get, nice and early, with the intention of going cycling. Tyres needed pumping up, but that was easily solved once I managed to track down a pump. Needed to track down gloves, hat, bag, baggy trousers and water bottle.

Once all that was together, I set out at about 10:45. I returned, 16 miles and 4 hours later. I didn't realise I was so unfit.. an average of 4 mph?! Awful. I hope to improve somewhat.

So now I'm watching the olympics. I like Olympics.

I'll sleep well tonight.

Stomach Bugs.
There's a few nasty bugs doing the rounds lately. Last night I was lucky enough to experience one of these bugs first hand.

I think I've turned the corner now; I've not chucked up for 8 hours now. Need a drink, unduprisingly. I'm still dizzy and feel drained, again, unsuprisingly.

While I was out yesterday (I went over to Tracy's), I got a call from a recruitment consultant. This person actually managed to offer me something relevant, I was impressed. There's a real chance that they'll offer me an interview, so keep your fingers crossed for me.

Also while I was out, I had a Chinese. It was nice.

Nothing to watch on TV. I usually watch Saturday Kitchen, but for some reason I can't face food right now. So I'm watching Discovery instead. I like to watch the old Sherlock Holmes films on a Saturday afternoon, but for some reason BBC 2 haven't got one on today. Shame.

I'm going to try and have a drink. I fancy orange huice, but I'll stick to water I think. Not sure if adding acid to my stomach is a good idea. One thing that sprung to mind last night was "what if it's the water making me ill?". My sis has had the same/similar bug recently. I doubt it is the water though - the water company would know by now, surely?

Take care everyone. Keep warm and healthy.

Sunshine.
Yes folks, there is sunshine. Purely in the weather sense you understand. It has sun shined three times today. Mainly for a couple minutes at a time. But this burst of sunshine has lasted a whole 10 minutes!

So I thought I'd be very kind and provide you all with a nice sunny picture of a nice sunny bit of grass from our back garden.

It's nice to be nice.

Oh, I've applied to a couple more jobs.

Told You...
that I'd show a picture of one of my "creations" for Sim City.

That's about it really. I stopped up until 3am this morning - just to see what happened when the presenters of Quizmania on ITV swapped over. I also wanted to see the end of one game. It took 1 hour 45 mins! I have to say that I found the Greg a more convincing presenter than Lottie. But I haven't seen much of her, so I can't really judge all that well.

I've finally read the instruction manual to my new camera and found out a few things. I'm also playing with joining photo's together. Wa. Hey.

Today I think I'll treat myself to a bath. Then I might treat myself to a hair cut, but we'll see. That involves going out, coming back and having a quick swill in the shower to get all the bits of hair off me.

Have fun

Tuesday Update.
Hello, good afternoon and welcome to Tuesday. It isn't a bright sunny day here, nor is it particularly warm. I'm still unemployed and some of the happenings over the weekend have been ludicrous in my opinion.

Yet, somehow, I'm happy. Tired, bored but content.

I have applied to four jobs since my last post. One in Edinburgh, one in Worcester, one in Cambridge and another in Tamworth. I'm due to hear about the Worcester job today so I may chase them up tonight if I hear nothing. The jobs aren't anywhere near what I want to do, nor could most of them lead to what I want to do. But it's problem solving - which is what I truly enjoy.

So now I'm talking to another of my parents cousin's! Again, a cousin of the female variety. A thought has just occurred to me - my family history contacts are predominantly female; why is this?

There's not much in the way of space news either really. New Horizons is doing well. Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter is in its approach phase (about a month to go before orbit insertion). Mars Express is doing well - coming up with some stunning pictures. Venus Express I haven't heard anything about for a while, so I don't think there's anything new to report there. We're still waiting for the Stardust project to begin its online analysis thing - I'm looking forward to that :-)

I'm creating my own buildings for Sim City. Yes, that's how bored I am. Expect screenshots.

TTFN

Official Announcement.
It is with regret that I must inform you that we are now switching to Plan B. I heard back from the company this morining and they won't be taking me on. The letter is quoted below. It was a 'nice' letter which is probably why I'm not that upset yet; that said, I haven't stopped trembling since opening the letter over an hour ago. So it will probably sink in later - what chance do I stand if I can't get a job I performed brilliantly for in interview, that was perfect for me and I was perfect for them? How am I supposed to get experience if an employer who is a great believer in training his workforce doesn't think I'm up to the job? Anyway, before I go out and visit family (and show off my lovely family tree project), here is the letter...

"Thankyou again for visiting [us] and I apologise for the short delay
in replying.

As you know, we were impressed with your abilities and it has been very difficult for us to make a final decision. Unfortunately, however, we have decided that your skills, at this time, do not fully match our requirements and we cannot, therefore, offer you the post.

We will be recruiting again some time next year if company plans come to fruition and we will certainly keep your name on our records.

We wish you every success in your future career."