I had a slight shock to the system this morning, when my day started with a very welcome dose of reality.
The last time I set my alarm clock was back on the 21st of December, in readiness for my last day at work the following day. So it was strange to revisit that familiar old feeling when the alarm broke my sleep at 6:30 today.
It’s been some time since I woke to that momentary feeling of disorientation and breathlessness in the pitch black of early morning darkness. For a flash moment you wonder who you are, if you’re still alive and what day it is …and then of course, your gut reaction is to want to turn over and go back to sleep!
As I was due at Manchester Airport to pick up my girlfriends parents, I was out the bed sharpish and into the bathroom for a dosing of H2o to complete the awakening process. A quick check of the arrivals board on my phone informed me that the plane had actually arrived 40 minutes earlier than scheduled and so, I was out the door and on the road quick-snap.
Having had the pedal to the metal for the first part of the journey, I was still 20 miles away from the airport when I hit this:
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| The outlook ahead? Grey skies and a lack of progress |
Forty minutes in the sticky stuff provided a sharp reminder about the pitfalls of a daily commute and certainly made me think twice about applying for jobs in the likes of Manchester, Liverpool and beyond. Mid-jam, I then ran out of screen-wash and having left the house in such haste, I’d also forgotten my wallet. No change for the car-park ...and no cash for any screen-wash! I really was out of early-morning practice!!
I arrived at Terminal 2 a full hour later than scheduled to collect my newly tanned in-laws, but I still got home early enough to tackle another full day of job searches.
The car was filthy with salt from the road, so before getting stuck into my new full-time job of ‘finding a job’, I took it for a well-needed wash. Having scrubbed-up nice and sparkly, I was then gutted to discover a freshly planted scratch on the car, which cuts deep into the front bumper. The score is only about an inch long, but it’s jet black and seems to stand out like a sore thumb on the white paintwork.
I do tend to take these kinds of things quite personally and immediately begin to wonder who I might’ve upset to receive such punishment! But on this occasion, the scratch seems to be in a fairly inconspicuous location, so I'm giving humankind the benefit of the doubt and will blame the curse of the evil supermarket trolley this time.
Back to the job search and I’m starting to lose faith in the national job-match agencies, as I’ve applied for dozens of vacancies now and am yet to hear a peep. Nevertheless, I trawled through various pages and applied for a few jobs that seemed to be diamonds in the rough today. Unbeknownst to me, the postman had arrived with a handwritten envelope in the meantime, but it was yet another rejection letter.
Later in the day, I signed up to two freelance writing websites, including Suite 101 and Prospect Solutions. Rather desperately, I also sent my story to ‘Take A Break’ magazine on the recommendation of a mate. By the time I’d finished this correspondence though, I’d already received an e-mail back from Suite 101 explaining that my application did not meet the standards required at this time.
All in all then, it’s been a pretty dismal day.
My Mum later asked me if I was “still doing that blog”, to which of course, I replied “Yes”. She proceeded to ask me “What’s the point?” and then tell me that “it’s a waste of time”, which was just the vote of confidence I needed!
Anyway, I’m off to make ‘better use of my time’ now as my sister has a Maths exam next week, so we’re going to have a go at looking at Mean, Median and Mode. Numbers definitely aren’t my strong point, but if there’s anything at all I can do to ensure my sis doesn’t end up in the same predicament as me in a few years’ time, I’m more than happy to help out.
Until next time, many blessings
Jason
Footnote: Just wanted to let regular readers of this blog know in advance, that unless anything dramatic or positively exciting happens over the next 24 hours, there will be NO blog tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll be back soon with some more positive news.
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