Day 24: Touchdown!

You're fully on target with a new project. And from Wednesday the stars bring a trail of new opportunities for Sagittarians. Mercury gives you the knack of homing in on the right place at the right time. And this week is a high spot in your career calendar. Spur-of-the-moment decisions are spot-on and another offer could be on the radar. Can it get much better than this?

That was ‘my stars’ from this weekend’s Sunday Mirror and whether you’re a believer in horoscopes or not, they can certainly provide welcome encouragement …if you want them to!  The key points from the above passage are that Wednesday could be an opportune day and that another offer could be on the radar.  With my trial coming up on Wednesday and an interview on the cards next Monday, I’ll be hoping this passage will somehow correlate with real life over the next seven days.

Whilst the opportunity at JD Williams came via a phone call from a friend, it’s very clear that Wednesday is a test and should not be underestimated.  As with all tests, I’ll need to study and I'll need to pass it if I want to try and turn that Wednesday into a Thursday and extend the process beyond.  To help me try and progress, I’ll be researching FashionWorld's brand imagery, retail positioning and its customer demographic over the next 24 hours.  In the past, my writing style has been described as 'a bit fluffy’, so I’ll need to get an accurate grasp of the FashionWorld customer base in order to pitch my writing-style correctly.

In the meantime, the job-searching has continued over the last few days, albeit in a slightly topsy-turvey format…

Astrologers 'stars' followed by the
national sport of the stars & stripes: An educational weekend

I love the thought that every day could be a school day and as I’ve had so much spare time on my hands recently, I’ve tried to utilise it constructively by learning some new ‘stuff’.

For example, I’ve often wondered what right-wing versus left-wing politics was all about, so I spent an hour reading up about it on Saturday.  After reading four in-depth articles, I’m still a bit confused and it’ll probably take much more reading before I get to the bottom of it.

If what I’ve taken-in is correct, it seems that right wing politics is traditionally rooted in conservatism and left wing politics has a more democratic and liberalist view.  Having thought about it, it appears that most political parties these days are somewhere ‘in the middle’.  But then I found out that Thatcher (Conservative), Blair (Labour) and Hitler (Hell) all held right wing views, which has left me even more confused than when I started!

Confusion continued into another area I wanted to find out more about; The Superbowl, which aired throughout Sunday Night on BBC1.

I’ve never watched a full game of the NFL and with all the build-up over recent weeks, I decided that if was ever going to get a chance to take in the showpiece of American Football, this was going to be it.  As of Saturday night, I hadn’t yet decided if I’d be watching the game live through the night, or via a recording on Monday.  Either way, I knew that Monday would be a total wipe out.

To counteract this, I spent part of Saturday night applying for jobs.  It was 9pm before I left the house and my computer behind and I'd never have thought that the centre piece of a weekend would ever be spent applying for work!

To be fair to The Job Centre once again, their matching team had called me up on Friday to inform me of a couple of positions that might’ve been of interest.  Details promptly followed in the mail on Saturday morning, and the posts of ‘Venue Booking Manager’ and ‘Online Marketing Executive’ were my priorities for Saturday night.  Proving that recruitment never sleeps, an e-mail regarding the latter position arrived less than 24 hours later, at around 4pm on Sunday.  Unfortunately, the agency had already appointed someone for the role on Friday ..before the details had even arrived through my letterbox!

Still, the time spent on applications during Saturday evening meant I could learn as much as I wanted about American Football without feeling too guilty.  With the coverage not finishing ‘til five past four on Monday morning, I wisely decided to watch all the build-up in bed on Sunday night, and to save the match itself until Monday afternoon.

Superbowl XLV it was then.  Pittsburgh Steelers versus the Green Bay Packers, who had a guy named Mike McCarthy in charge as Head Coach.  A kind of an American version of the Wolves Manager Mick McCarthy I suppose.  But without the nose.  With Mick’s team having beaten the odds by turning over Manchester United at the weekend …my backing was with Mike’s helmeted warriors to do the same.

If I wanted to learn about American Football, I certainly had the opportunity.  A sixty-minute game is broken into four quarters...which lasted over three hours!  In all, I watched a five hour and ten minute marathon, which was jam-packed with loads of everything, but not a lot of sport.    

I learned that an MVP is the ‘Most Valued Player’ (or ‘Most Voted Player’ in the end-of-season awards), that a Quarter-Back is by far the most influential player in the game and oh, how they love the drama!  At first, I found it hard to focus on the small, brown ball with so much going on in and around the field of play, with graphics, pitch-markings and hundreds of players and staff on the periphery.  As the first quarter drew on, I slowly got to grips with it.  And with a mangled rendition of the star-spangled banner by Christina Aguilera, a half-time show featuring the Black Eyed Peas, Usher and Slash,  and dozens of advertisements (on the BBC!) sneaking in, it definitely made an interesting experience.

In the end, the Green Bay Packers won 31-25 and it was a fairly enjoyable day of life after the public sector.   Much like the politics research though, I find myself with many questions and much to learn.  But I certainly saw enough to know that I probably won’t watch another one!

Peppered in between today's entertainment, I also received notification that my reference had been received for my UCAS application, so I was finally able to submit my payment and complete the application process.  I even got a Facebook message from an old friend regarding a potential opening that might be coming up at his place.

All of a sudden, the incompletions are not bothering me quite so much and the fieldgoals are starting to build up.  I've got a clear view of the endzone now and if I can ride those final tackles, I might be able to score that all-important touchdown. 

Many blessings.

Jason