The tension was unbearable...
"All right," said Deep Thought. "The Answer to the Great Question..."
"Yes..!"
"Of Life, the Universe and Everything..." said Deep Thought.
"Yes...!"
"Is..." said Deep Thought, and paused.
"Yes...!"
"Is..."
"Yes...!!!...?"
"Forty-two," said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.
- Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
I have waited a very, very long time to be able to use the above quote in reference to myself. Almost 30 years, in fact. Ever since I first read the Hitchhiker's series.
Yesterday I turned 42.
I am now The Answer. The magic number.
Maybe that means my luck will turn and I will find the job of my dreams - or, at the very least - a job that I don't absolutely hate, LOL.
After finally finding a job (one that I was enjoying immensely) back in May, a restructure at work has meant that a lack of physical office space has rendered my employment a logistical impossibility, so now I'm back on the job hunt again.
Just what I needed. (Where is that sarcasm font when you need it?)
There are still bills to pay, books and uniforms to buy for Cheyenne as she starts High School next year (yikes!), and I haven't even started shopping for Christmas presents yet. No thanks, I do NOT want to hear how many shopping days left until Christmas.
In the meantime, I'll just kick back (between job applications) and enjoy being 42. I might even re-read the Hitchhiker's series to celebrate.
Hopefully Life, the Universe and Everything is coming my way soon.
...lots of jobs that you probably won't get.
Well, that's what it feels like to me, anyway.
I applied for 13 jobs during February. Along with several hundred other applicants, no doubt.
How many of them have I heard back from? Two. Both replies were of the "Thanks for applying, but unfortunately..." variety.
Apparently, despite my having 4 functioning limbs, a heartbeat, reliability and near-full availability, and the fact that, in their words "your skills and background are impressive", Woolies found someone who "more closely matched the current requirements" for a store replenishment (night fill) position. Seriously? Yeah, I'm reading that one as "we found someone cheaper".
The other rejection (for an admin assistant to a property manager) was still quite positive. They received a huge number of high quality applications and I am to be commended for being one of only 10% of applicants who actually followed the unusual request for a hand-written cover letter and a posted application, and as such, they are going to keep me in mind if anything further becomes available. That would be really lovely, but I don't think I'll hold my breath.
Do I expect to hear back from any of the others? Probably not. These days, even the ones that don't specifically say "Due to anticipated large number of applicants, only those shortlisted candidates will be contacted" won't bother giving you feedback, more often than not. It's a rare few who actually do.
In the meantime, I could try to upskill. That's the buzzword of the moment, isn't it? Seems like everybody wants a piece of paper these days, on top of your experience. The problem with this is that, without a job, I can't afford any of the certificate courses that are available. Even a 6 week basic MYOB course is upwards of $1500. It could be a while before I can save up enough for that. Luckily TAFE has several intakes per year for that one.
The whole thing is incredibly soul sucking, but I won't give up. For every job that I don't get, it should mean that one less person is competing against me for the next one, right?
If only that were true. *sigh*
Don't look now, but it's another natural disaster... and you all know what that means.
Yep, that's right, Tropical Cyclone Marcia has reached a Category 5.
Cue the 24 hr rolling television coverage.
Networks 7, 9 and 10, I'm looking at YOU. The ABC is also guilty of this, albeit to a lesser extent.
While there's no denying that TV coverage is essential in getting warnings out to those in the "at risk" areas and keeping the rest of us up to date with developments, there is nothing more irritating than seeing the same video footage playing on a constant loop.
Remember the Cyclone Yasi reports? How many times did we see the same piece of awning ripping off a building and flying up the main street? Or how about the 2011 Brissie floods? I swear, if I'd seen that loop of that same wheelie bin floating down the river, just one more time... OMFG!
Sex sells, as they say, but obviously it's natural disasters that get the TV ratings.
But honestly, if nothing new has happened in the last hour, I'm really NOT interested in seeing footage shot last night (AGAIN), combined with a scrolling news ticker and a misleading "Live coverage" label in the top corner of the screen.
Please return us to our regularly scheduled programmes.
I'm more than happy for you to cut into a show with "Breaking News"... so long as it's actually breaking news and not another rerun of events that happened yesterday, that you've already televised ad nauseam.
In the meantime of course, it's Marcia, Marcia, Marcia. (see what I did there?)
I have family and friends in the path of Marcia, and I can only pray they will be safe.
It does seem like the media has forgotten all about the NT. They're facing Cyclone Lam, but if the networks are to be believed, it seems to be only a second thought to Cyclone Marcia. I hope everyone in the NT stays safe too.
Oh well, I have a portable hard drive full of movies I can watch. So. Very. Glad.
So... last year I promised to update my blog more regularly.
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
You can see how well that turned out.
The last time I posted was April last year!
...erm, yes... well... no excuses.
Nothing blindingly fabulous happened that needed a blog post. The year sped by quickly and was full of the mundane, and there's no point boring you all with blah posts.
Steve's still working, Cheyenne's still at school, I'm still looking for work. We even still have the same car (surprise surprise, lol).
This year I'm not making rash promises about my blog. I will try to post more regularly... if anything happens that's worth posting about.
This is Cheyenne's last year of Primary School though, so that could give me topics to post about. We'll see.
