Category Archives: Work and Studying

Dec 29 2012
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Work and Studying

Sore All Over, But Happy

This building lark, eh? It all looks so easy. Long tea breaks, late starts, leaving early and banging a few nails in here and there. Well, I think I landed a job with the strangest builder ever. He does not stop. He does not take tea breaks. He eats lunch on the go. And I had a 7 am (!) start.

My first day on the job and we are renovating an old country pub into a house. All I have to do is knock down a few walls and tidy up. How hard can it be? Well, I flung myself into the task with abandon, hammer moving so quickly it was blurred. Lathe and plaster flew in all directions, dust went everywhere and I filled black bag after black bag with rubble. So far, so good.

The owner was a wonderfully eccentric lady, who for some reason insisted on calling me Alan. For the record, I have shoulder-length blonde hair and do not have a moustache. I managed to bring down most of the wall by just after lunch (a packet of Fridge Raiders eaten on the go), but when I finally stopped for a break, everything – and I mean everything – ached. I was using muscles that haven’t been so much as gently twanged in years.

The upside is that I stood outside at one point and just breathed in the fresh air. It was an amazing feeling to do such physical work, after over a decade in an office. There’s something to be said for being able to pop outside and just be still for a moment and it was good to chat away about something and nothing with my friend – no office politics, just having a laugh.

The downside is the fact that MS never takes a break. Whenever I got too hot, I had to cool down. My feet buzzed incessantly. I started to get electric shocks in my neck. But if I had to weigh it up, I would say that the symptoms were worth it. Ok, every single part of me is sore. I feel like I’ve been run over. But MS can make me feel that way too.

I am working today too, then I’m off for three days. The Teenager has made it safely to London and he didn’t find my Twiglets. Life is looking good.

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Dec 28 2012
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Work and Studying

New Job Nerves

My dream job doesn’t start til the Spring, so my friend is employing me as a builder’s mate in the meantime and I start today. Gulp. It will be odd as we’re best friends and now he will be my boss. He’s been joking all week I have to start addressing him as ‘Boss’ from now on too. Like that’s going to happen, mister.

I laid out all my builder gear last night – old jeans, several thermal layers, Caterpillar boots, woolly hat and gloves. Makes a change from dressing for the office and at least I don’t need to think about what to wear every day. I thought I would have the evening to myself to psych myself up, but thanks to over-running engineering work at Paddington, The Teenager has been delayed going to London, and he has hoovered up the rest of the Christmas shortbread and chocolates and I reluctantly shared my stash of Diet Coke.

Do builder’s mates wear make up? Should I still keep my nails tidy or are they going to be ruined anyway? I don’t want to look too butch, but there’s something quite nice and different about going to work in the open air, not caring if my clothes get dirty or my hair is wind-whipped. I’ve had a chat with my friend and my main job is clearing up, and I can definitely do that. Also, fetching tools from the van and making coffee and chucking a brush round the place. Easy.

He knows all about my MS, so he’ll understand if I trip or drop things and we’ll hopefully have a good laugh about it. I’ll enjoy reading The Sun and munching on greasy bacon rolls. I’m looking forward to the exercise and just blowing some cobwebs away. But I still have first day nerves. This is it for the next three months.

So wish me luck. My new building nick-name is ‘Half-Shift’, which is quite cute and  I feel like part of the building community already. Wonder if my friend will let me drive his van? Watch this space – I’ll tell you how it all went tomorrow.

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Dec 22 2012
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Work and Studying

Moving Out of My Comfort Zone

Two months working from home have left me with the social skills of a gnat. I dash out in the morning for newspapers and food and dash back home again. I am virtually a recluse, staying at home recovering from the emotional battle I’ve been through over the last year. I have been firmly embedded in my comfort zone.

Well, no longer. I miss company, chatter and being part of society. I feel strong and ready to take on the world again and I have just signed up to do something I have always wanted to do. Don’t laugh, but I will be volunteering in a charity shop once a week. I am the queen of thrift, the doyenne of upcycling, the one you always find in the middle of the jumble sale crush. I can’t wait to start.

Any new town I visit, I always find out where the charity shops are, especially If I go somewhere upmarket. There’s a great one on the King’s Road in Chelsea where I bought all my suits for work from when I lived in London. I am infamous among my friends for thrusting objects at them as soon as they walk in my door – ‘Hey! Check this out! Only £1!’ My house is filled with eclectic finds, rescued treasures and a haphazard mixture of randomly framed pictures.

I have never worked in a shop before and am looking forward to meeting new people and easing myself back into a workplace again. The manager, who’s lovely, knows about my MS and has no issue with it at all. There will be a workplace capability assessment, but that’s standard for anyone with an illness like MS.

It might sound odd, but I am over-excited about rummaging through all the donations. I can’t wait to learn how to use a till – strange I know, but doesn’t everyone want to play shop sometimes? So wish me luck, and if you see someone staggering along the road with a huge painting under one arm and a side table under the other, that’ll be me…

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Nov 21 2012
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Work and Studying

The Christmas Work Party…For One

A delicious thought struck me the other day. This year, for the first time in well over a decade, I will not be going to a Christmas work party. Technically I am still employed until the end of December, but I’m guessing I’d be as welcome as a new MS  lesion on an MRI scan.

This means I won’t spend days (weeks) agonizing over my party outfit, striking the right balance between chic and trashy. I won’t need to find a ‘jolly’ pair of flashing Christmas tree earrings, or drape tinsel round my neck and I won’t need to get involved in a Secret Santa present-swap, so no sneaky trip to Poundland then (I highly recommend the candles and picture frames – wrapped in expensive paper, who’d know?).

Most of the work parties in recent years have been excruciating exercises in ‘office bonhomie’. The boss is generally dressed down in dodgy ‘cool’ clothes, they’ve put twenty quid behind the bar and we all sit there with a limp cracker and a single party popper. Conversation stumbles along until enough cheap alcohol is consumed and it’s at this point that all hell usually lets loose.

Old resentments spring up, snarky comments are traded and the boss just sits there, eyes glazed,  trying to get us all to tell rude jokes. Inevitably, one or more of the women will rush to the loo, crying, followed by a gaggle of other women, eager to be the first with the gossip. With Christmas carols playing on a loop in the background, one or two will attempt to grab random drunken men for a dance and the smokers will decamp with their drinks to the back terrace and remain there the rest of the evening.

Am I sad then, to be missing out on all this fun? Er, no. It’s a relief. So I have decided to throw my own party for one. I’ll go to Waitrose for a nice selection of party nibbles, pour some Cava, put Cliff Richard’s Christmas CD on and have a fabulous time. There’ll be no need to dress up, so I’ll have a ‘pyjama party’ dress code. There’ll be no embarrassing photographs being emailed round the following morning unless the cat has developed opposable thumbs and there will be a sense of relief not to go to the office the next day only to be met with raised eyebrows.

So, to all of you who have an office party to go to, good luck and raise a glass to me…I’ll be thinking of you.

 

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Nov 16 2012
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Work and Studying

I Have a new job…Almost

Woo hoo! I’m swinging my pants and hanging out the bunting. I have a new job, the job of my dreams, the job I would construct from fantasy and make real. Regular readers who can cast their minds back far enough will remember I went for a job interview at a company I really wanted to work for and I had everything crossed.

So why the glum face? Well, I had a phone call yesterday from the company that started with the words, ‘I’m afraid it’s bad news’. Never a good indication.  Luckily I was sitting in my car at the time and was able to rest (thump) my head on the steering wheel. The chirpy woman explained that the new  location I was due to be placed in at the beginning of January was now not going ahead, but there may be an opening for me a few months down the line in a different site. Apparently my job is secure, just not right now. Perhaps in the spring.

I now have a problem. My current job (with the Evil Bosses who sacked me for having MS) ends just before Christmas, after I negotiated two months grace. From then on, I will be unemployed.

But, never fear, my Super Friend has come to the rescue, yet again. He has very sweetly registered himself as an employer with the tax office, waded through mountains of paperwork and has offered me a job to tide me over until my new one starts. Phew! That was a close shave. Why, then am I ever so slightly apprehensive about starting work with him, during the cold, bleak, dark winter months?

Don’t laugh. He’s a builder and I will be his builder’s mate. Honestly. With my dodgy balance, weak left arm and tingly hands and feet, he’s still prepared to take me on, probably for the comedic factor, but hey, it’s a job. I have to start reading The Sun (skipping swiftly over Page 3) and work out the difference between an architect and an architrave. I will need to begin enjoying burgers bought from vans, strong tea and listening to commercial radio all day long.

On reflection, I am incredibly lucky. The alternative is too awful to contemplate. And maybe doing such physical work for a couple of months will a) tone me up and b) make me so, so grateful to get back into the warmth again in my proper new job. So, if anyone wants a kitchen fitted or an outside wall rebuilt, I’m your (wo)man…..

To read about my interview – click here.

To read more about Super Friend – click here.

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