A lovely autumn day

I didn’t get the job, which sucks. I knew it was unlikely (after a week of hearing nothing) but they called me this morning. A definite rejection as opposed to a probable rejection always stings slightly more...

Apparently I interviewed “really well” but they employed someone with more direct marketing skills.

I feel a bit ‘meh’ at the moment. This weakened state might explain why I’d quite like to see High School Musical 3. The adverts keep coming on TV and it looks all shiny and fun and now I want to see the damn film. Even though it will be probably be pants. Why do I want to work in marketing? Clearly they prey on the weak...

I took the dogs to the park this morning at the same time as everyone else took their dogs. Bess had to stay on the training lead quite a bit and was a bit barky. But it was a nice walk regardless and we bumped into a friend and ended up chatting for ages. We were waxing lyrical about autumn and it turns out it’s his favourite seasons as well. Being outside on such a beautiful day made me feel better, then it was back to make breakfast for my sickly wife and now, back to the grind..!

Training

I did something very bad yesterday. I didn’t walk the dogs. It’s ok as long as you only do it once in a blue moon. They do have a garden to stretch their legs in and relieve themselves and seeing as if interviewed they would say their favouritist thing ever is being on the sofa, and they spent all day on there, they actually had a very fine day indeed. With my partner being sick and me up to my eyes in job hunting/applications time just slipped away.

Plagued by guilt however, I got up this morning and with less than half a cup of coffee in me and still so bleary eyed I put both contact lenses in the same eye (how does that happen?) we headed off for a longer than usual walk to make up for the previous day. We walked for ages and for most of the time it was just us and nature, but then two other dog walkers appeared with a gorgeous little Staffy girl, who unfortunately Bess chased. Bess is going through a period of anxiety where she runs up to other dogs barking. She doesn’t attack or growl but it’s still unacceptable behaviour. So much so, I’ve bought a 10m training line which when we’re walking somewhere extra busy or where I don’t have clear sight of what is coming up ahead, I can have her on lead but with a bit more freedom than if she was on her normal lead. The other dog owners weren’t happy and I can’t really blame them. I did apologise but even those people that know Bess and know how gentle and loving and silly she is, would have to admit that if she was running toward them at full tilt there would be a moment – albeit flickering – where they might have wished they hadn’t had such a large breakfast.

It’s all about perception and because we have allowed people to brutalise certain breeds, Staffy’s being one of those breeds, society thinks that when they see a dog like Bess (Staffy/Mastiff x) trouble isn’t far behind. Ironic then that after a life time of being beaten and treated so appallingly, the worst she can come up with is running up to dogs barking and then running back to me looking guilty...

Still, she shouldn’t be doing it whichever way you look at it so we’ve got to do some training.

I’m working on a proposal for a consultancy gig – writing an equality booklet; something I’ve done before, and if I can finish that today then I’ll be right on schedule. I’m trying to do things as soon as they come in. It’s partly in the vain hope that lots of well paid jobs come up in Cornwall. I don’t want to have applications stacked up which may mean I miss deadlines or rush them.

So on that note...

Interview preperation and a grandfather clock...

It’s been a stressful day and I’ve spent a fortune in Staples. Oh, and the Sky remote isn’t working either!

It’s the last day before my interview and I did my interview prep with a friend yesterday evening (I was terrible but it was really useful and helped loads). I finished off my presentation this morning and am now just doing some research. When I do a presentation, I always do extra copies to leave with the interview panel so they can go over the presentation afterwards. So I popped along to Staples this morning to get some nice presentation folders and some more paper because to run out of paper would have been a small disaster! I looked at ink cartridges but we had bought ink very recently and so I moved on...

That was until I got back home, realised I did indeed need to change the ink cartridge and couldn’t find where we put the new ones. Two phone calls to my partner with no response and I realise (a) she’s in a meeting and (b) I was wasting time and just had to get back in the car and go to Staples. Again. This time I also bought a few other bits.

I got back in time to meet the delivery men who had brought the grandfather clock, that we have inherited from my partner’s grandfather (funnily enough), up from Hove. Luckily they put it back together quickly and efficiently and then it was off out again this time with the dogs who were demanding to know what the hell had happened to their morning walk. The walk was nice – someone had a bonfire and it smelt lovely – and I began to calm down. The dogs ran around like lunatics and now we’re all back home on the sofa with two thirds of us asleep, one third of us snoring, and a remote control that refuses to do what it’s told. I also have a pile of research (thicker than most novels) I need to get through, preferably before my partner gets home because I need to also do a huge – and I do mean huge – pile of washing up. Put it this way, I had to make my coffee with a chopstick this morning and that’s not an easy thing to do...

I also need to eat at some point, pack a bag and maybe even try to fit in some rest and relaxation. Although there seems to be fat chance of that so far!

Winter's coming...

It’s a clear but cold day. The dogs and I have just been to the park to blow away the sofa cobwebs. I’ve been wearing a jumper this last week or so but the weather’s been relatively mild, today however, I needed a coat and scarf on our walk, winter is coming…

(Although depending on which reports you read/watch it’s going to a warm, wet winter or it’s going to be a freezing cold winter!)

As much as I like meeting friends and other dogs on our walks, I like it when it’s just us because I can switch off and daydream. The park is looking beautiful; the ground is covered in acorn husks and there are big piles of fallen leaves in various shades of red, brown and gold, that even at 34 I can’t help but kick through. The only other beings we saw were squirrels (being harassed by Pluto and Bess) stocking up their winter larder, and the crows ‘cawing’ and hopping about drunkenly. Apart from that it was just us: the dogs chasing each other – or the squirrels – and me relaxed and lost in thought.

Now we’re back in the warm which is nice but I suspect that one of the dogs has been at the chicken feed because someone has vile wind and it’s not me. My peaceful reverie is over to be replaced with the worry that one of them now has a tummy ache…

I’m off out this evening to help celebrate a friend’s birthday. He specifically said no presents but we’re giving him a jar of homemade marmalade! The marmalade turned out to be gorgeous and we’ve already received several requests for jars.

Tomorrow my mum is coming over for tea and to look at the ‘official’ wedding photos in case there are any she would like a copy of. I’m making hazelnut brownies, which could go either way. I either make great cakes or lousy cakes – I’ve yet to discover a middle ground. We also need to pick up a storage chest we’ve bought for the garden. Our small shed is literally bursting at the seams, so we’ve bought something to store all the chicken stuff in, and we should still have some room over left for pots. No doubt we’ll take the opportunity to do a garden tidy up before winter sets in. We should be doing some planting at this time of year, but with us desperate to move by the end of the year/very beginning of next, we don’t really want to commit to working hard to plant lots of seeds that we can’t nurture and subsequently harvest. We’re in vegetable limbo!

A new gadget arrived today. It’s a stand-by plug set and remote control. You plug in all the stuff you don’t want on stand-by (but which might be awkward to get to) into a special plug and then when you want to switch everything off, you just use the remote control – from up to 30 feet away! No more scrabbling around on hands and knees… unless you want to and that’s entirely your own business…

Right, I need try and work out how my new MP3 player works. As with everything that arrives in this house with a set of instructions, I may end up giving it to my wife with a plaintive look and a request for her to please help before I end up throwing it out of the nearest window…